The first round of the Australian Open is in the books now and on Wednesday the second round will begin for the men and women along with both doubles tournaments continuing on another busy day in Melbourne.
If the opening day of the tournament went with the form and the seedings the second day more than made up for that with three seismic shocks across the two main draws which will have those who have made it through treading very carefully from here on in.
Caroline Wozniacki was the only name of note to disappear on the first day but Tuesday saw upsets for Venus Williams, Simona Halep and Rafael Nadal which has sent shocks waves through Melbourne.
While Tuesday wasn’t a good day for the big names it was a good day for followers of this blog as we hit five winners from the six bets we had to really kick start the tournament into life for us and while Wednesday doesn’t yield as many bets hopefully the ones we do have provide similar results.
In truth there is little in the men’s draw which stands out to me on Wednesday. There are a lot of one sided looking matches and after what we’ve seen so far and the weather impacting players I don’t want to take big handicaps or risky lines at the minute.
That means my betting for Wednesday will come on the women’s side of the draw where I’m particularly keen on a couple of favourites to come through with plenty in hand.
The first is a Svetlana Kuznetsova who demolished Daniela Hantuchova for the loss of just two games in the first round. She now takes on Kateryna Bondarenko who also came through in straight sets in the opening match.
Kuznetsova warmed up for this tournament by winning the event in Sydney where she took care of the likes of Sabine Lisicki, Simona Halep and Sara Errani among others so she is playing some great tennis right now.
Bondarenko won a couple of matches to qualify for Brisbane at the beginning of the year but never won a main draw match prior to this tournament so she will be delighted to have come through the first round. I think she’s met her match here though.
Kuznetsova has a dated 3-0 head to head record over Bondarenko where she covered a 5.5 handicap in two of the three matches and I expect her to cover the same line once again on Wednesday.
Kristina Mladenovic really came to light in the final Grand Slam of 2015 where she made the quarter final of the US Open and she began this tournament well on Monday, coming past the dangerous Dominika Cibulkova in straight sets.
The French player now faces America’s Nicole Gibbs who came through a three setter in the opening match. Gibbs did well in the two sets that she won but the one she was well beaten in was a concern it has to be said.
I think the American lady will have to up her game to live with Mladenovic on what we’ve seen from her on the big stage recently and I’m not sure she will do it so I’ll take the French girl on the handicap here.
I’m also getting involved in the women’s match in the night session which sees the fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska taking on Eugenie Bouchard. The Polish player is a big favourite for the match but I don’t necessarily see it that way.
Bouchard had a pretty rough 2015 but she was going really nicely in the US Open until injuring herself in the locker room but she has begun 2016 well too. She made the quarter final in Shenzhen and the final in Hobart so she has plenty of momentum coming in here.
Radwanska won the title in Shenzhen so she’s going well too and I would probably expect her to come through in the end but I don’t see her having this one all her own way. They’ve met once in the past which was on clay but Bouchard is probably better on the faster courts so that should play into the Canadian’s hands. I think a 4.5 game handicap is a game or two too big here.
Back S.Kuznetsova (-5.5 games) to beat K.Bondarenko for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Paddy Power
Back K.Mladenovic (-2.5 games) to beat N.Gibbs for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Back E.Bouchard (+4.5 games) to beat A.Radwanska for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with Paddy Power
