The third round of the Australian Open concludes on Saturday at what will be a much different Melbourne Park with the crowds no longer allowed to attend the tournament after the city was put into an emergency lockdown.
Although nobody will be in the stadiums to witness it, the entertainment will keep on coming with the likes of Ash Barty, Rafael Nadal, Daniil Medvedev and Karolina Pliskova just some of the star names taking to the court on Saturday.
Day 5 Recap
It was the best day of the tournament so far on Friday, although with the seeds facing each other for the first time that was likely to be the case. The top two seeds in action in the men’s draw both had to survive a fifth set to make it through with Novak Djokovic outlasting Taylor Fritz despite an injury and Dominic Thiem rallying from 2-0 down against Nick Kyrgios in the match of the competition so far. Things were much more straightforward for the big name women in action as Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka and Simona Halep all powered through in straight sets.
It was another really frustrating day for us betting wise with Sara Errani the main culprit this time. The Italian lost 2-1 to Su-Wei Hsieh but was a break up in both the sets she lost and actually served for the match in the deciding set without being able to get the job done. Nick Kyrgios recovered most of those losses though as despite not getting the better of Thiem, he proved the handicap was the better play by covering that comfortably.
Rod Laver Arena
We have an all-Czech battle to get us going on the main arena on Saturday when the big serving Karolina Pliskova will look to make it into the second week of the tournament at the expense of her compatriot Karolina Muchova. When they have battled it out it is the turn of the men in a slight switch to the regular schedule of the week so far. That sees the ATP Finals winner Daniil Medvedev going up against Filip Krajinovic who may lack the weapons to see off the Russian. The final match of the day session sees two classy operators battling it out as Belinda Bencic takes on Elise Mertens.
The night session gets underway with a match between two women who won’t have had this sort of stage to themselves very often when Anett Kontaveit takes on Shelby Rogers with the last match of the day seeing the one remaining Brit left in the singles draw in action when Cameron Norrie faces the daunting task of looking to deny Rafael Nadal a place in the second week of a tournament he is looking to win for just the second time.
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Margaret Court Arena
Two seeded players meet to get the action underway over on the Margaret Court Arena when Yulia Putintseva takes on Elina Svitolina in what looks like an evenly matched contest before Donna Vekic will look to make the second week of the competition as she faces up to Kaia Kanepi, who had a wonderful win over the defending champion Sofia Kenin in the previous round. The day session then conludes with one of the men’s matches on show on the day as Andrey Rublev takes on Feliciano Lopez for a spot in the fourth round.
The women’s world number one Ash Barty has the honour of opening up the night session. You would have thought she would have been given that assignment on the Rod Laver Arena but nevertheless she will take on Ekaterina Alexandrova on this one instead. The final match of the day on this court sees the enigmatic Italian player Fabio Fognini going up against the home number one Alex de Minaur in a sneaky good looking match.
John Cain Arena
The John Cain Arena has seen some of the best matches in the tournament so far and they might get more of the same on Saturday when the action begins with Jessica Pegula meeting Kiki Mladenovic for a fourth round spot. When they are done Jennifer Brady goes up against the qualifier who has made it to this stage in Kaja Juvan before the men take centre stage. The former semi-finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas concludes the day session on this court when he meets the Swedish player Mikael Ymer before in the night session Karen Khachanov has a meeting with Matteo Berrettini.
Betting
There is only the one bet that I like in the play on Saturday and it comes from the men’s draw where I think Radu Albot deserves a little bit more credit than he is getting in his match against Casper Ruud. I took Ruud on in the first round and for a set and a bit it looked like I was going to be bang on the money but then all of a sudden his opponent Tommy Paul couldn’t locate the court and fired error after error in a pretty tame defeat.
I’m not sure the same is going to happen here though. Albot doesn’t have a huge amount to lose here and in Roberto Bautista Agut and Christopher O’Connell he has already had a couple of decent wins this week. I’m not completely convinced Albot will win this match, although I wouldn’t be surprised one bit if he does, but a 5.5 game handicap is a little on the high side to me. If Albot wins a set that should be enough to stay on the right side of this spread.
Tips
Back R.Albot (+5.5 games) to beat C.Ruud for a 3/10 stake at 1.85 with William Hill
Back him here:
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