Barely seven hours after a terrific Thursday ended at the Australian Open a fantastic Friday will get underway when the third round of the opening Grand Slam of the year gets underway on the main courts at Melbourne Park.
The tournament was lit up on a fantastic day of tennis on Thursday which saw shocks galore and a near six-hour epic which went on beyond 4am in the morning. This is the first day seeds can play each other so expect the competition to go up a notch now.
Rod Laver Arena
We begin on the Rod Laver Arena with the Czech player Barbora Krejcikova taking on the lower ranked Anna Kalinina. When they are done then the men will take centre stage with Stefanos Tsitsipas looking to make the second week of the tournament when he meets Tallon Griekspoor. The day session concludes with the young American star Coco Gauff on show. She meets here fellow American player in the form of Bernarda Pera.
Another leading American light will open up the night session on the Rod Laver Arena when Madison Keys steps onto the big stage. She meets Victoria Azarenka who has twice won in Melbourne and will be looking to make the second week once again. When they are done the beaten finalist of a year ago Daniil Medvedev takes to the stage. He will go up against Sebastian Korda who has had a good start to the season which he will hope continues here.
Margaret Court Arena
It is the men who get the action on the Margaret Court Arena underway and they do so when the exciting Italian rising star Jannik Sinner takes on the veteran Marton Fucsovics and then when they are done one of the fancies for the women’s title, Jessica Pegula, is on show when she meets Marta Kostyuk. The day session concludes with the number one seed Iga Swiatek looking to make it into the second week of the event. To get there she has to beat the qualifier Cristina Buosa.
The night session on the Margaret Court Arena on Thursday was incredible and it looks pretty good on Friday too when Hubert Hurkacz gets proceedings underway when he takes on a Denis Shapovalov who was built for the night matches in the big stadiums. The women’s match might have quite a wait before it gets onto court but when it does Maria Sakkari will go up against Lin Zhu to round off the day.
John Cain Arena
We have a couple of doubles matches to open up the schedule over on the John Cain Arena on Friday but when the singles action comes along it will do so with two men’s matches, one in the day session which sees the Argentine player Francisco Cerundolo taking on the Canadian number one Felix Auger-Aliassime. The other match comes in the night session and sees Karen Khachanov going up against the leading American player left in the men’s draw in Frances Tiafoe in what should be a decent encounter.
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Kia Arena
There are two singles matches on this court on Friday as well but once again we have to wait for a couple of doubles games to be completed first. When they are both singles games take place in the day session and we begin with the a good looking women’s match as Danielle Collins goes up against the Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina. When they are done Cameron Norrie will be back on court. He has a meeting with the unseeded Czech player Jiri Lehecka.
Men’s Betting
I’ll go with one bet in the men’s draw on Friday and that sees Denis Shapovalov taking on Hubert Hurkacz where I fancy the Canadian to come through. Hurkacz was on court for four hours in the previous round and while he came out on top that effort is likely to have an impact on a player who can hide behind a big serve but doesn’t really have the rest of the game to match, hence why it took him so long to see off Lorenzo Sonego.
Shapovalov has had a largely lighter route through to this stage and he has the better all court game of the two for me. He also spins the ball much more than Hurkacz and I think that is going to be important because we’ve all seen over the first week or so of the competition that these balls are dead a few shots into the rally. Given his extra fitness and better game you would think the longer this one goes Shapovalov should come on even stronger and I fancy he’ll come through here.
Women’s Betting
I like one in the women’s draw as well where I expect to see a pretty close match in terms of games when two really watchable players meet when the Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina takes on the finalist here a year ago in Danielle Collins. This will be their second meeting in 2023 already having met in Adelaide earlier in the month. That meeting went to a deciding set and I wouldn’t be surprised if this one does as well with both women pretty solid on serve and clean hitters of the ball.
The games line for this match is 22.5 which is dangling the sort of carrot that I can’t ignore. If this one goes to a third set, which it very well could, then the over is almost a certainty but there is every chance one of the sets is close in a straight sets match and then we would be odds on to get the over to land. When Collins beat Rybakina in San Jose last year she won in straight sets with both being in tiebreaks and in Adelaide earlier in the month the Kazakh got her revenge in three sets with the first one finishing 7-5. I think the over lands here.
Tips
Back D.Shapovalov to beat H.Hurkacz for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
Back E.Rybakina vs D.Collins – Over 22.5 games for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with William Hill
Back them here:
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