The third round of the Australian Open gets underway on Friday which means we have reached the stage in the tournament where the seeded players can face each other for the first time, and there are plenty of those sorts of clashes in the main arenas at Melbourne Park.
We are back to the first parts of the draw on Friday which means Novak Djokovic, Dominic Thiem, Alexander Zverev, Simona Halep, Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams will all be among the many players looking for a spot in the second week of the tournament.
Day 4 Recap
Thursday was another excellent day of tennis but it was one where the bigger names cruised through in the men’s draw with Rafael Nadal, Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev all progressing without losing a set. That wasn’t the case in the women’s draw where we lost the defending champion Sofia Kenin who lost to Kaia Kanepi in straight sets. Ash Barty and Karolina Pliskova were both straight sets winners to progress through to the third round.
It was the first really bad day for us from a betting standpoint with both our bets losing and doing so in frustrating manner. Danielle Collins was a break up in both sets against Karolina Pliskova but won neither of them while Tommy Paul won the first set against Casper Ruud but couldn’t build on his advantage and ended up succumbing tamely in four sets, which was incredibly disappointing. That leaves us with a bit of work to do on Friday and moving forward.
Rod Laver Arena
The Belarussian powerhouse Aryna Sabalenka opens up the show on the main court on Friday when she takes on Ann Li for a place in the fourth round. When they are done the great Serena Williams will be looking to make it through to the second week of yet another Grand Slam when she faces the Russian player Anastasia Potapova. The final match of the day session sees Alexander Zverev taking on Adrian Mannarino in an all seeded clash.
The night session begins with the women in action when the Wimbledon champion Simona Halep takes centre stage for a testing little clash against the Russian player Veronika Kudermetova. The men’s match to round off play for the day is a bit of a disappointing choice given the options that were available. It sees the defending men’s champion Novak Djokovic facing the talented American player Taylor Fritz.
Margaret Court Arena
There is a great schedule on the Margaret Court Arena on Friday and it gets going with Marketa Vondrousova going up against Sorana Cirstea before one of the dark horses for the title is back on show as Garbine Muguruza meets Zarina Diyas who had a decent win in the previous round. Two classy men then battle it out to finish off the day session when former semi-finalist Grigor Dimitrov takes on US Open semi-finalist Pablo Carreno Busta for a place in round four.
Possibly the match of the third round begins the night session when Denis Shapovalov takes on his Canadian compatriot Felix Auger-Aliassime in a clash which sees two of the best for the future battling it out in what could well be the start of a rivalry for the ages. The night session concludes with the French Open champion Iga Swiatek on show. She faces the French player Fiona Ferro to round off a really good looking day.
John Cain Arena
If you have a ticket for the John Cain Arena or set your stream up on that court you won’t be short of top action. Su-Wei Hsieh will be the player to get you underway when she meets the qualifier in Sara Errani before the US Open champion Naomi Osaka gets to showcase her many talents once again when she takes on Ons Jabeur. Diego Schwartzman will be looking to continue to make progress in the competition when he meets the Russian qualifier Aslan Karatsev before the night match on this court closes the show in tantalising fashion as Dominic Thiem meets Nick Kyrgios in what has all the hallmarks of a slobberknocker.
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Men’s Betting
As I have done so far I’ll take one in the men’s betting on Friday where I like Nick Kyrgios to keep close order to Dominic Thiem. I actually think the Australian has got a great chance of winning this match and he has been helped out massively in that quest by the match being scheduled as the night game on the John Cain Arena where the ground pass holders can get in so there should be a good atmosphere out there under the lights.
If I hadn’t had such a bad day on Thursday I would have taken a punt on Kyrgios at the prices but as it is the 3/4 on him to stay within 5.5 games is still perfectly reasonable. Thiem is a better player on a hard court than he was a couple of years ago but he doesn’t always look comfortable against power servers on quick courts and there was evidence of that in the ATP Cup last week when Matteo Berrettini took him to the cleaners. Kyrgios showed some decent character in his win over Ugo Humbert in the previous round and it might be that doing his bit to help the locals during the pandemic has done him the world of good. He might very well win but I’m confident he’ll remain within 5.5 games of the US Open champion here as I would be very surprised if he goes down in straight sets, and even if he does tiebreaks are likely in this one.
Women’s Betting
There is just the one I like in the women’s draw on Friday as well and that comes in the form of Sara Errani to beat Su-Wei Hsieh in the opening match on the John Cain Arena. We saw on Wednesday that Hsieh enjoys herself on the big courts against the big players. She admitted in her interview after her win over Bianca Andreescu that it is that which gets her going. She doesn’t face a big name here though. She faces someone with a similar variety of shots that she has.
Unlike against Andreescu, Hsieh faces someone completely fit from regular action both in qualifying for this event, a warm up last week and two very appealing wins over Qiang Wang and Venus Willians thus far, the latter who was dispatched for the loss of just one games. Hsieh is a player who likes to redirect power and Andreescu gave her more and more of it on Wednesday. Errani won’t be giving her any of it so I would expect a lot more errors from the Asian here and an Errani win as a result.
Tips
WON – Back N.Kyrgios (+5.5 games) to beat D.Thiem for a 4/10 stake at 1.75 with BetVictor
Back him here:
Back S.Errani to beat S-W.Hsieh for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with Coral
Back her here:
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