The Australian Open continues on Thursday with another exciting day of action in store across the grounds at Melbourne Park on a day where the second round of the singles event should be completed in the opening Grand Slam of the campaign.
We are still waiting for the first truly big shock in this tournament and the big names on show on a very good schedule of play on Thursday will be hoping they are not the victim of it. They include Aryna Sabalenka, Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Garbine Muguruza.
Rod Laver Arena
It is the Spanish star Garbine Muguruza who will open up a very strong order of play on the main court on Thursday. The number three seed takes on Alize Cornet in a very good looking match. When they are done the number two seed comes out to play when Aryna Sabalenka meets Xinyu Yang before the one men’s match concludes the day session. That sees the Australian number one Alex de Minaur taking on Kamil Majchrzak in a good looking match.
Speaking of good looking matches the pick of the second round clashes opens up the night session on Thursday when the number two seed and tournament favourite Daniil Medvedev takes on the home star Nick Kyrgios who could be a right challenge if he fancies the job. Former Wimbledon champion Simona Halep rounds off the action on the day. She has a late night date with Beatriz Haddad Maia.
Margaret Court Arena
The decent action isn’t restricted to the main stadium as there is a very good card on the Margaret Court Arena as well. That begins with the much improved Anett Kontaveit taking on Clara Tauson before two young stars take to the court when Hailey Baptiste meets Maddison Inglis in a match which will give us a look into the future. The day session then ends with Stefanos Tsitsipas looking to make progress in the tournament when he meets the lowly ranked Sebastian Baez.
We have another good night session in store over on this court and it begins with the US Open champion Emma Raducanu looking to make the third round of a third straight Grand Slam. She meets Danka Kovinic before the exciting Italian ace Jannik Sinner rounds off the show with a match which might get tight against Steve Johnson should the American show some of his best form.
John Cain Arena
The John Cain Arena really has been the place to be so far this week and if you have a ticket for that court on Thursday you won’t be disappointed. The former French Open champion Iga Swiatek starts the action off when she meets Rebecca Peterson before two Americans collide when Frances Tiafoe takes on Taylor Fritz. The day session on this court is rounded off with the classy Elena Rybakina facing the Chinese player Shuai Zhang. There is one match in the night session here and it will be of interest to British fans as Andy Murray is back on court to take on Taro Daniel.
Kia Arena
Andrey Rublev is a huge name and he gets to open up the show on the Kia Arena on Thursday. The number five seed meets the Lithuanian number one Ricardas Berankis before the Aussie veteran Sam Stosur steps back onto the court for what could be the final time when she meets Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. When they are done the Canadian youngster Felix Auger-Aliassime will be looking for a place in the last 32 when he takes on Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in what is the last singles match of the day on this court.
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Best of the Rest
If you have a ground pass or access to the outside court streams on Thursday you won’t be disappointed either as there are a number of seeded stars on show around the grounds. They include Danielle Collins, the British number two Dan Evans, Roberto Bautista Agut, Grigor Dimitrov, Diego Schwartzman and Daria Kasatkina while the former Wimbledon finalist Marin Cilic is also on show mixed in around the many doubles matches.
Men’s Betting
I’ll go with the one bet over the course of the day on Thursday and it comes in that classic contest between Daniil Medvedev and Nick Kyrgios. A lack of a competitive hit is likely to go against the Australian in this match but he’ll be roared on by a full to the 50% capacity on the Rod Laver Arena and he’ll use that energy to inspire him for a while. He knows he has won both previous meetings against the Russian and although they were both in 2019, that was the time when Medvedev was breaking through to this level so it is still relevant.
I don’t think Kyrgios will win this match but I can certainly see a situation where he can win a set, or take a couple of sets deep. Tiebreaks could easily be a feature of this match because this Kyrgios serve can be hard to get a handle on when it is on song, and it generally is here. The scoreboard makes good reading from the first round for Medvedev but even in a straight sets defeat he lost his serve and was taken to a tiebreak in one of the sets and Henri Laaksonen brings nothing like the firepower that Kyrgios does. That all makes me think this one will have more than 34.5 games whether it is a straight sets win or goes four sets.
Women’s Betting
I’m a little surprised that Ludmilla Samsonova is such an outsider for her match against Marketa Vondrousova on Thursday. The Russian is actually the highest ranked of the two and while Vondrousova has a decent record in Grand Slams as a whole, she isn’t going to be improving too much at this stage of her career whereas Samsonova looks to be a player on the up. Not only is she on the up, she is already ranked above her opponent here.
Samsonova is a big hitter so she should be suited to these courts in prime conditions and is someone who picked up wins over Sloane Stephens and Belinda Bencic in the Billie Jean Cup at the back end of 2021. Those results will give her confidence on this stage and although it wasn’t brilliant in the lead up to this tournament, Samsonova pushed the eventual champion Madison Keys close in Adelaide last week, going down in a deciding set. I think she can take the game to Vondrousova against whom she leads their head to head 1-0 after a straight sets win in Berlin last year. The Russian looks good value to me.
Tips
WON – Back N.Kyrgios vs D.Medvedev – Over 34.5 games for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Back L.Samsonova to beat M.Vondrousova for a 3/10 stake at 2.75 with Bet365
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