The second round of the Australian Open is due to conclude on what will be a much cooler day in Melbourne on Thursday, when those who are yet to battle for a spot in the last 32 do so around the Melbourne Park grounds.
The tournament is still coming to terms with the exit of Rafael Nadal on Wednesday and those left in the men’s draw will be looking to take advantage of that. The likes of Novak Djokovic, Casper Ruud, Ons Jabeur and Caroline Garcia are some of the stars on show.
Rod Laver Arena
There is a real powerful women’s match opening us up on the main court on Thursday when the fifth seed Aryna Sabalenka will take on a Shelby Rogers who can go toe-to-toe with her in the slugging stakes. When they are done we move to the men’s draw for what could be a drawn out encounter between the relentless American player Jenson Brooksby and the number two seed Casper Ruud. The day session concludes with another really good women’s match when the last two beaten finalists at the US Open meet as Leylah Fernandez takes on Caroline Garcia.
The night session gets underway with the men’s match and for the second time this week it will be Novak Djokovic on show. He goes up against the French qualifier Enzo Couacaud who will be looking to pull off the biggest upset in Australian Open history. The action on this court concludes with the number two seed in the women’s draw on show when Ons Jabeur meets a Marketa Vondrousova who can more than hold her own at this level.
Margaret Court Arena
We begin on the Margaret Court Arena with Katie Volynets looking to take out the ninth seed Veronika Kudermetova before the Estonian star Anett Kontaveit will look to put that horrible end to 2022 behind her when she takes on Magda Linette in what could be an awkward clash. We then conclude the day session with the lucky loser Michael Mmoh facing the former Grand Slam finalist Alexander Zverev who was taken the distance in the previous round.
The Adelaide champion Belinda Bencic will look to continue her good start to the season in the opening match of the night session on Thursday. The Swiss star takes on Claire Liu for a place in the third round before all eyes will be on a home player in Thanasi Kokkinakis, who won the men’s doubles here last season alongside Nick Kyrgios. He will be in singles action against Andy Murray who has to back up that incredible win over Matteo Berrettini in the previous round.
John Cain Arena
The action on the third court begins with the extremely watchable Taylor Townsend going up against Ekaterina Alexandrova before Elise Mertens will look to follow up her good win over Garbine Muguruza in the first round when she takes on Lauren Davis. There is just the one men’s match in the day session on this court and that sees Taylor Fritz meeting the home wildcard Alexei Popyrin before the action concludes in the night session with the one match which sees another home player in Alex de Minaur taking on Adrian Mannarino.
Kia Arena
We have to wait for the singles matches to start on the Kia Arena because it is women’s doubles up first but when the singles comes along Andrey Rublev will look to move into the next round at the expense of Emil Ruusuvuori before the home wildcard Kimberly Birrell meets the young Czech player Linda Fruhvirtova. Play on the Kia Arena concludes on Thursday with the ninth seed Holger Rune facing a serve and volley examination which will be provided by Maxime Cressy.
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Best of the Rest
There are a few more singles stars on show than we might normally get around the grounds on Thursday after the rains of earlier in the week. Those with access to those courts will be able to see Grigor Dimitrov, Dan Evans, Diego Schwartzman, Liudmila Samsonova, Karolina Pliskova, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Shuai Zhang, Roberto Bautista Agut and Pablo Carreno Busta among others on the various different courts.
Men’s Betting
There are a couple of bets I like in the men’s draw with the first of them coming in the form of Jenson Brooksby to run Casper Ruud close. Brooksby when he is on it is incredibly tough to beat and there are enough signs that Ruud is struggling to little to believe the American can get his teeth into the match and if he does that this could be a really extended encounter. Brooksby warmed up for this tournament with a run to the semi-final in Auckland where an equally hard to beat Cameron Norrie got the better of him. Ruud hasn’t kicked 2023 off in great style. He lost to Matteo Berrettini in the United Cup and then to Laslo Djere in the first round in Auckland and might just be low on confidence. If Brooksby can defend his serve well he can push this to at least a decider if not more.
I’m a little surprised that Andy Murray is the sort of price that he is to beat Thanasi Kokkinakis. I suspect much of that is down to the fact the layers expect Murray to be knackered after his first round encounter but he’ll have had more than 48 hours to recover by the time he takes to the court and durability has never really been an issue for him. Kokkinakis went well in Adelaide last week but we can’t ignore the fact that his big strength – his serve – is hugely likely to be negated by the excellence of the Murray return game so if the Brit is fit enough to go again, and I expect him to be, then I think he’s a big price to get this one done.
Women’s Betting
I’ll take two in the women’s draw as well where I’m expecting a bit of a comedown for the home wildcard Kimberly Birrell when she takes on Linda Fruhvirtova. To be fair, even if there isn’t a comedown you have to think the Australian has her work cut out against the classy Czech who is looking like a real talent. This is likely to be the year that Fruhvirtova makes a major breakthrough a few months after she won her maiden WTA title in Chennai and I expect her to have too much for Birrell who won’t have had to cope with the highs of beating someone of the standard of Kaia Kanepi and then having to get back down and go again too often. Fruhvirtova had a cruise in the first round and while this might be tougher I still think she covers a 3.5 game handicap.
I’ll also take Petra Martic to come out on top when she takes on Shuai Zhang. Zhang has a decent record in this tournament but she is having to play for a second successive day after a two hour encounter on Wednesday which isn’t ideal. Martic had a good straight sets win over Viktorija Golubic and that was on Tuesday so she has had the extra day to get her recovery in and go again here. The Croatian hasn’t had many results in 2023 but she competed in the United Cup where he opponents were Maria Sakkari and Caroline Garcia and while she lost both matches she’ll have taken a lot more from those outings than she would beating weaker prey. Zhang lost both of her matches in Adelaide and then needed three sets in the first round here. The Croatian looks the one to be on here.
Tips
Back J.Brooksby (+1.5 sets) to beat C.Ruud for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with Betway
Back A.Murray to beat T.Kokkinakis for a 3/10 stake at 2.38 with Bet365
Back P.Martic to beat S.Zhang for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Bet365
Back L.Fruhvirtova (-3.5 games) to beat K.Birrell for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
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