The second day of the Australian Open will see the first round of both the singles draws come to a close across the Melbourne Park grounds on a day where those who are yet to get their opening Grand Slam campaign of 2021 underway get the chance to do so.
That means we get the chance to see the likes of Rafael Nadal, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Daniil Medvedev as well as the defending women’s champion Sofia Kenin and the world number one Ash Barty all in action for the first time this week.
Day 1 Recap
The opening day of action saw comfortable wins for the majority of the major players that were on show. There were straight sets wins for Novak Djokovic, Dominic Thiem, Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka while the likes of Simona Halep and Alexander Zverev breezed through without too many troubles too. Gael Monfils, Benoit Paire and Angelique Kerber were among the seeds who were surprisingly beaten on the opening day of the tournament.
It was a good first day for us from a betting point of view with both our bets winning by the extra 0.5 on the handicap. To be fair to Mikhail Kukushkin he was a lot better than a 3-0 scoreline and served for the first set but importantly for us he only lost by eight games which was the margin we wanted. Mihaela Buzarnescu did the same thing. She did win a set against Bianca Andreescu and that was enough to stay within five games of the former US Open champion to get us off to a perfect start to the match betting.
Rod Laver Arena
The defending champion Sofia Kenin gets the honour of starting up the action on the main arena when she meets the home wildcard Maddison Inglis for a place in the second round. When they are done it is the turn of Elina Svitolina to take centre stage. The Ukrainian takes on Marie Bouzkova before the star attraction in the men’s game on Tuesday takes to the court as Rafael Nadal meets Laslo Djere who was on the fringes of the world’s top 20 not too long ago.
The night session opens up with the Australian star taking to the court when the world number one Ash Barty looks to extend her winning run this month when she takes on Danka Kovinic who will hope to be inspired by the big stage. When they are done the action on the Rod Laver Arena concludes with one of the better men’s matches on the day as Stefanos Tsitsipas meets Gilles Simon in what could be a lengthy encounter.
Margaret Court Arena
A contender for the title opens up the play on the second court when Garbine Muguruza begins her quest to go one better when she meets Margarita Gasparyan. The twice former champion Victoria Azarenka then steps onto the court as she meets the American player Jessica Pegula before the one men’s match in the day session takes place. That sees many people’s fancy for the title on show as Daniil Medvedev meets a potentially awkward challenger in these conditions in Vasek Pospisil.
There is a cracking match to get the night session underway when Matteo Berrettini goes up against a man who knows how to make it to Grand Slam finals in Kevin Anderson, who is probably past his best but could be competitive in these conditions. The final match of the evening on this court sees one of the home wildcards Daria Gavrilova taking on Sara Sorribes Tormo for a place in the second round.
John Cain Arena
It is our outright tip in the men’s draw which gets the action underway on Tuesday as far as the John Cain Arena is concerned as Andrey Rublev goes up against Yannick Hanfmann of Germany before the rising teenage star Coco Gauff is in action when she takes on Jil Teichmann in a match she will be expected to win well. The final day match on this course sees the Australian number one Alex de Minaur on show when he goes up against a Tennys Sandgren who has gone well in these conditions before. Two Aussie wildcards meet in the later match on this court as Sam Stosur goes up against Destanee Aiava.
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1573 Arena
The fourth court at Melbourne Park also has some decent matches on it and they start off with Belinda Bencic looking to make the second round of the tournament when she takes on Lauren Davis before a dark horse in the men’s draw steps onto court when Roberto Bautista Agut meets Radu Albot. Karolina Pliskova has gone under the radar this year and she is third up on this course to take on Jasmine Paolini before there is an interesting looking clash between the seeded Casper Ruud and Jordan Thompson to round off the action in the day session. The night session sees Petra Martic going up against the qualifier Olga Danilovic.
Best of the Rest
There are plenty of seeded players on the outside courts on Tuesday with our women’s outright pick Anett Kontaveit among them. David Goffin is another who will command attention and then players like Hubert Hurkacz, Donna Vekic, Fabio Fognini, Karen Khachanov, Dan Evans, Yulia Putintseva, Maria Sakkari and Borna Coric can all be seen on the various streams that are available for the outside courts in this event.
Men’s Betting
As with Monday, I’ll go with one in the men’s draw on Tuesday which comes in the match between Sam Querrey and Lorenzo Sonego where I’m going to take the more experienced player even if he is the lowly ranked player on show. Conditions are expected to be a lot hotter at Melbourne on Tuesday so the courts are likely to play quite quick and I think that will suit the American player Querrey who can camp behind his big serve.
To be fair to Sonego, he made a real name for himself at the end of last season when he took care of Novak Djokovic in Vienna but he has only had one match this term so he could be coming into this tournament a little rusty. Querrey competed in Delray Beach last month and also in one of the warm up events where he took the eventual runner up Travaglia to a deciding set. Given that he’s been more active and conditions might be in his favour I’ll side with Querrey to come through here.
Women’s Betting
I’m not normally one to back Jo Konta to win tennis matches but I noted with interest that she has reunited with her coach from 2019 where she made the semi-finals in the French Open and the quarter finals at Wimbledon. She bottled both matches which is the downside to the reuniting of that partnership but generally that year it took pressure or an inspired performance to beat her and I’m not convinced that the lowly ranked Slovenian player Kaja Juvan is going to provide either of those.
Konta tends to play well in Melbourne having previously been a semi-finalist here while her first round defeat last year she puts down to an injury which she says she is managing a lot better. She hasn’t exactly been overactive in terms of matches since the restart of the sport so you’d hope her movement will be fine her. Konta battles hard and these quicker conditions may well suit her. I think she’ll have too much for her opponent here who did well to qualify but may offer little resistance to the Brit who clearly wants to get back to her best under her newly reappointed coach.
Tips
Back S.Querrey to beat L.Sonego for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Coral
Back him here:
VOID – Back J.Konta (-2.5 games) to beat K.Juvan for a 3/10 stake at 1.75 with Betway
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