The second round of the Australian Open gets underway on Wednesday and it does so with another excellent schedule of play throughout the grounds at Melbourne Park on a day where the tournament might really kick into life.
Those who played on Monday and won are back on show on Wednesday which means we get to see the likes of Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka, Novak Djokovic and Dominic Thiem for the second time in the tournament on a good looking day of action.
Day 2 Recap
As with the opening day of the tournament the major players all cruised through by and large on Tuesday. Rafael Nadal, Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev, Matteo Berrettini, Sofia Kenin and Ash Barty all breezed into the second round with the latter winning without dropping a single game. Victoria Azarenka and Roberto Bautista Agut both but the dust though so it wasn’t all plain sailing for the seeded players. Petra Kvitova and Stefanos Tsitsipas were others who progressed on Tuesday.
It wasn’t the best day of all time for us from a betting point of view because having lost our outright bet in Azarenka we then lost a match bet with Sam Querrey getting royally done up by Lorenzo Sonego. That would have been ok with Jo Konta having won the first set of her match but then she went injured and withdrew all of a sudden to turn what looked like a winner into a void bet so there is work to do on Wednesday.
Rod Laver Arena
The former US Open champion Bianca Andreescu is the first seeded player up on the main court on Wednesday when she takes on the potentially dangerous challenge of Su Wei Hsieh who has beaten established players here before. Speaking of established players Serena Williams is second up on the main court. She meets Nina Stojanovic for a place in the third round before the day session is rounded off by the defending men’s champion Novak Djokovic who takes on the committed battler Frances Tiafoe.
The night session begins with the US Open champion Naomi Osaka on show when she faces the competent challenge of Caroline Garcia in what could be the pick of the women’s matches on the day. The final match on the main court sees Alexander Zverev back on show. He faces the American qualifier Maxime Cressy for a place in the third round of the opening Grand Slam of the year.
Margaret Court Arena
Aryna Sabalenka gets the task of opening play on the second court. She faces Daria Kasatkina who looked in decent touch in the first round and could be a threat here. The second match on this court also comes from the women’s draw as Petra Kvitova goes up against Sorana Cirstea before the day session concludes with a clash from the men’s draw as the US Open champion Dominic Thiem faces Dominik Koepfer in what might be a test for the third seed if he lets it be.
The women kick off the evening session on this court as well and it is the number two seed Simona Halep who will be on show when she faces the home star Ajla Tomljanovic before another Australian is on show in the men’s match that follows. That sees the former semi-finalist in Melbourne in Grigor Dimitrov taking on the Australian wildcard Alex Bolt in a match which might be a lot closer than the world rankings suggest.
John Cain Arena
The former winner of the Australian Open gets the show underway on the third court when Stan Wawrinka is back on court. He meets Marton Fucsovics in a good looking match before the veteran Venus Williams looks to make it through to the last 32 of a major once again. She meets Sara Errani who is showing signs of finding her form again after a period in the doldrums. The third match sees the French Open champion Iga Swiatek taking on Camila Giorgi while the last match on show on this court comes under the lights when the always good to watch Nick Kyrgios takes a break for his war of words with Novak Djokovic to face Ugo Humbert.
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1573 Arena
Marketa Vondrousova is the player who gets to open up play on the 1573 Arena. She meets the Canadian qualifier Rebecca Marino before the men come out to play as the Argentine star Diego Schwartzman takes on the lucky loser Alexandre Muller who is already taking advantage of his second chance in the event. Garbine Muguruza is then back on court for her second round clash when she faces Liudmila Samsonova. The action on this court concludes with a couple of Americans battling it out when Reilly Opelka meets Taylor Fritz.
Best of the Rest
The doubles gets underway on Wednesday and much of the action on the outside courts involves that but there are still some big names on show in singles competition and they include Felix Auger-Aliassime, Ons Jabeur, Denis Shapovalov, Milos Raonic, Dusan Lajovic, Pablo Carreno Busta and Elena Rybakina who are just some of the seeded players who will be looking to make it through to the third round away from the spotlight of the big arenas.
Men’s Betting
I’ll go with the one bet in the men’s draw once again which comes fairly late in the day when the two Americans collide as Reilly Opelka takes on Taylor Fritz in a match where I expect the seeded player to come through and am a little surprised that he is as big as 8/11 to do so. Both men looked pretty good in their first round wins, although Fritz took on a more seasoned player and the extra battle he got could well have stood him in good stead here should this one go deep.
These two have met six times in the past and Fritz has won on five occasions so he clearly gets a read on the Opelka serve the longer the match goes ahead and that is key. I say that because clearly the rest of the game he has a massive advantage in, in terms of his movement and his groundstrokes and being able to rally. Opelka might keep sets competitive and in a tiebreak he might pinch one but it is Fritz who I expect to get to three here.
Women’s Betting
There is just the one which catches my attention in the women’s draw on Wednesday as well and that comes in the form of Bernarda Pera who goes up against Zarina Diyas for the second Grand Slam in the last three after the two met in the US Open last year. Pera won that match 76 60 and I suspect she’ll be far too good for the Kazakhstan player when they meet in the second match on Court 8 on Wednesday.
Pera went into this tournament off the back of a good looking win over Donna Vekic in Abu Dhabi at the beginning of the year and she absolutely shellacked Angelique Kerber in the first round here. The German had legitimate excuses with the hard quarantine but you still have to hit the ball well to get it past her as often as she did. Diyas did a good job in the first round as well to be fair to her but Pera caught the eye and with their US Open meeting still recent enough to count for something, I think the American can win with a bit in hand here.
Tips
WON – Back T.Fritz to beat R.Opelka for a 3/10 stake at 1.73 with William Hill
Back B.Pera (-2.5 games) to beat Z.Diyas for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
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