The second round of the Australian Open gets underway around the grounds at Melbourne Park on Wednesday on a day where the doubles action also starts out, as the opening Grand Slam of 2022 begins to warm up nicely.
In the main the big names all made it through to the second round largely unscathed so already we have some exciting tennis to look forward to. That is certainly the case on a good looking schedule of play down under on Wednesday.
Arthur Ashe Stadium
The main court action on Wednesday begins with the champion from Sydney last week looking to extend her unbeaten run when Paula Badosa takes on Martina Trevisan before the home favourite and top seed Ash Barty will look to take a step closer to winning this title for the first time. She also faces an Italian qualifier in the form of Lucia Bronzetti. The day session concludes with the men’s match which sees the legendary Rafael Nadal back onto the court. He meets the qualifier Yannick Hanfmann for a place in the third round.
We have a very good night session to look forward to over the course of Wednesday and it begins with a cracking looking women’s contest as the defending champion Naomi Osaka faces Madison Brengle. A busy day of action concludes with the Olympic champion Alexander Zverev going up against a home player in the form of John Millman who has history of upsetting the big names on the biggest stages.
Margaret Court Arena
In a unique twist a husband and wife are on the schedule on the Margaret Court Arena on Wednesday. It is the lady of the pairing who opens up the action when Elina Svitolina meets Harmony Tan. When they are done we have a men’s match between Soonwoo Kwon and the exciting Denis Shapovalov. A decent day session then concludes with the reigning French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova taking on the Chinese wildcard Xiyu Wang.
It is the women who open up the night session on Wednesday as well with the Greek star Maria Sakkari looking to make it into the third round of a Grand Slam once again. She will take on the Chinese qualifier Qinwen Zheng before a day which started with one half of a married couple on court finishes with the other half of it as Gael Monfils goes up against the enigmatic Alexander Bublik in a match which is sure to be entertaining and could produce absolutely anything in terms of shot making.
John Cain Arena
We have enjoyed some fantastic action over on the John Cain Arena over the first two days and we have another decent looking card to relish on Wednesday. It begins with the Italian star Camila Giorgi in action. She meets Tereza Martincova before Madison Keys looks to extend her winning run after landing the title in Adelaide last week. Her second round opponent is Jacqueline Cristian. The day session rounds off with the Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini in action. He meets the American wildcard Stefan Kozlov. The schedule on this court concludes with an evening match between our outright pick Hubert Hurkacz and Adrian Mannarino.
Kia Arena
The former champion Victoria Azarenka will get the action underway on the atmospheric Kia Arena. She faces the Swiss star Jil Teichmann who finished 2021 well. Our other outright selection in the men’s draw is then on show in the second match of the day when Pablo Carreno Busta takes on the Dutch player Tallon Griekspoor before the Olympic champion Belinda Bencic meets Amanda Anisimova. The last match on this court sees the Sydney winner from last week Aslan Karatsev taking on Mackenzie McDonald.
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Best of the Rest
The outside courts are a mixture of doubles action mixed in with the remaining singles stuff. There are still enough matches for some decent names to be around the grounds for us to enjoy either in person for those at the event or on the streams for those of us who aren’t. They include Jessica Pegula, Carlos Alcaraz, Lorenzo Sonego, Jelena Ostapenko, Cristian Garin, Reilly Opelka, Karen Khachanov and Veronika Kudermetova.
Men’s Betting
As has been the case all week so far I will take one bet in the men’s draw on Wednesday and we have to wait right until the end of the day’s play for it to come as it comes in the form of the match between Gael Monfils and Alexander Bublik where the Kazakh might be getting a game too many in a match I expect to be a little tighter than the odds layers suggest, despite the emphatic nature of the first round win for the Frenchman.
These two met at the French Open two years ago where surprisingly it was Bublik who came out on top and in these quicker conditions I certainly think he can protect his serve well enough to remain within 5.5 games here even if he doesn’t actually win the match. These two are enigmatic and great shot makers but I’m not expecting many breaks of serve. It also wouldn’t be a surprise if Monfils hits a flat spot. He isn’t getting any younger and has already withdrawn from an event in 2022. Bublik hasn’t started 2022 brilliantly but he beat Alexander Zverev and Matteo Berrettini among others on a hard court last year and should enjoy this occasion. He might not win but these two are matched more closely than the 5.5 game handicap would suggest.
Women’s Betting
Alison Riske has already done me a turn in this tournament and I’ll take her to continue her good start to 2022 when she takes on Jelena Ostapenko. A good second half of 2021 has got the Ostapenko ranking back into the seeded ranks but she remains way too erratic both in terms of her tennis and mentally for me to trust her. We saw shades of that in the first round here when she sent down a ridiculous 58 unforced errors in coming from behind to beat Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.
The Latvian was able to get away with that then but I don’t think she’ll get away with it here. Riske comes here having made the final in Adelaide and she backed that up with a good win over Donna Vekic in the first round, where in two pretty routine sets she fired close to 2:1 on the winners to unforced errors ratio. Riske has had plenty of injury issues which have held her back in the past but she looks to be playing well here and these faster courts should allow her to put enough on the ball to keep the Ostapenko error count ticking over regularly.
Tips
Back A.Bublik (+5.5 games) to beat G.Monfils for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Coral
Back him here:
Back A.Riske to beat J.Ostapenko for a 3/10 stake at 2.40 with BetVictor
Back her here:
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