The third round of the Australian Open begins on Friday when the seeded players are able to meet each other for the first time. As such there is a very tasty schedule for us to enjoy around the grounds on Day 5 of the competition.
It took a while but the real shocks started to come along on Thursday but it is the other half of the draw on show on Friday where the big names have all come through largely unscathed so we have a number of decent matches on the schedule.
Rod Laver Arena
We begin with two of the better women players over the last decade meeting when the former champion Victoria Azarenka takes on Elina Svitolina before the French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova will look to make the second week of another Grand Slam. She meets another player who has been victorious at Roland Garros before in the shape of Jelena Ostapenko before the men’s action rounds off the day session and it is a cracking contest to do it with as the young star Carlos Alcaraz meets the Italian big hitter Matteo Berrettini.
The night session looks just as good on Friday evening. The world number one and home star Ash Barty gets the primetime slot for her meeting against a Camila Giorgi who has looked very impressive to date. The final match of a great day on the RLA sees the legendary Rafael Nadal looking to make it through to the fourth round. He meets the Olympic silver medallist Karen Khachanov in the biggest test of the tournament for both to date.
Margaret Court Arena
The action over on the second court on begins with Jessica Pegula looking to make it through to the second week of the competition. She doesn’t have a seeded player. Instead she meets Nuria Parrizas Diaz who is making a bit of a name for herself this week. Paula Badosa is the form horse at the minute and she takes on Marta Kostyuk for a place in the fourth round before two entertaining men’s players take to the stage when Reilly Opelka takes on Denis Shapovalov.
The defending champion Naomi Osaka opens up the night session on the Margaret Court Arena on Friday night. Her opponent is also unseeded but is still very dangerous in the form of Amanda Anisimova before a belting day of action in this part of the grounds sees the semi-finalist of 12 months ago, Aslan Karatsev, taking on Adrian Mannarino who pulled off a shock in beating Hubert Hurkacz in the previous round.
John Cain Arena
The doubles action has made its way over to the John Cain Arena on Friday which means that the schedule has just the two singles matches on it over the course of the day and evening. The day session match comes in the women’s draw when Maria Sakkari takes on Veronica Kudermetova. The men’s match is saved for the evening where Alexander Zverev will look to continue his routine progression so far. He meets Radu Albot.
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Best of the Rest
Although the outside courts are largely full of doubles action there are some singles matches dotted about at various times of the day. They see the likes of Gael Monfils, Cristian Garin, Lorenzo Sonego, Madison Keys, Pablo Carreno Busta and the American star Sebastian Korda all in action for those who either have a ground pass on site or access to the various streams that are available for this tournament.
Men’s Betting
I’ll go with the one bet in the men’s competition on Friday and it comes in the North American battle between Reilly Opelka and Denis Shapovalov where I’m expecting the American player to come through and win. I don’t know what it is but Shapovalov just can’t seem to produce a straightforward win at a Grand Slam. He seems hell bent on making life hard for himself and with chances to break the Opelka serve coming at a premium that is a big concern for me.
Opelka has breezed into third round match without dropping a set, as opposed to the Canadian who has surrendered three sets in his two matches so far. It isn’t so much that Opelka hasn’t dropped a set in the tournament, in two matches to date he has lost just 13 points on his first serve which is pretty insane. Shapovalov is either going to need to hold his nerve in a bunch of tiebreaks to win this match or he is going to need some real luck to break the Opelka serve. Unfortunately too many errors come off his racquet for me to be convinced he holds serve throughout so I think the American is the bet here.
Women’s Betting
I’ll also take one in the women’s draw on Friday too and we have to wait for the night session for that to come about. That is the match between Amanda Anisimova and Naomi Osaka where I like over 20.5 games. I was toying with the idea of backing Anisimova to cover a 4.5 game handicap because there were signs in the second set in particular against Madison Brengle that Osaka might just have been feeling her lengthy absence from the game.
I’ll take the over though because there is a danger that the longer this one goes on and Osaka finds a rhythm she could pull away but the over in games only needs one close set to cover either in straight sets or a third set which I certainly wouldn’t be surprised to see. Anisimova has been hitting the ball very well in this tournament and will be buoyed by a win over Belinda Bencic in the previous round. Time will tell whether she’s good enough to beat Osaka but she certainly has the weapons to keep the Japanese star on court for a while.
Tips
Back R.Opelka to beat D.Shapovalov for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Boylesports
Back him here:
WON – Back A.Anisimova vs N.Osaka – Over 20.5 goals for a 3/10 stake at 1.73 with William Hill
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