The second week of the Australian Open begins on Sunday when all but one of the eight singles matches on show across the two draws are played out on the three main courts at Melbourne Park as the event elevates in status.
We are back with the half of the draw that has both of the defending champions continuing their title defence on what looks to be a decent day of action out in Melbourne, with the singles matches nicely spread out to avoid too many clashes.
Rod Laver Arena
Three of the eight matches will take place on the main court on Sunday and when we start up the US Open champion Coco Gauff will continue her bid for a second successive Grand Slam title when she goes up against the Polish player Magdalena Frech. When they are done the men’s defending champion Novak Djokovic will continue his title defence. He is expected to have a fairly routine time of it against an Adrian Mannarino who has lost all four meetings between the pair. Those matches take place in the day session and the one match in the night session sees the home star Alex de Minaur going up against Andrey Rublev.
Margaret Court Arena
We have a men’s match and a women’s match on the Margaret Court Arena but we have to wait for a seniors doubles match to take place first. When the singles action begins the defending champion Aryna Sabalenka takes on the heavy hitting Amanda Anisimova. The men then follow those onto the court as the exciting Jannik Sinner looks to make another Grand Slam quarter final when he goes up against the Russian player Karen Khachanov who knows a thing or two about reaching the last eight of a Grand Slam.
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John Cain Arena
We have a similar schedule over on the John Cain Arena where a doubles match gets everything underway. When we get the singles on court we have arguably the pick of the men’s matches on Sunday as Taylor Fritz goes up against the man who was beaten in the final here a year ago in Stefanos Tsitsipas. The women then follow them onto the court when the teenage sensation Mirra Andreeva takes on the former French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova for a spot in the quarter final.
Betting
I like a couple of outsiders to keep their higher ranked opponents honest on Sunday with the first of those being Amanda Anisimova who takes on Aryna Sabalenka in a match where it will soon become quite easy to feel sorry for the ball such is the pace it is going to get hit with. Anisimova actually leads the career meetings between these two 4-1 although Sabalenka won the latest meeting but even then she had to come from a set down. Both women have made it to this stage without dropping a set but Sabalenka has had a very comfortable draw so far whereas Liudmila Samsonova and Paula Badosa in particular will have warmed Anisimova up for the test she will face. Whether she is good enough to continue her fine record over the defending champion remains to be seen but a 5.5 game handicap feels one or two too many. If Anisimova wins a set, which she has done in every meeting then I expect her to cover here.
Another outsider I fancy to cover is Karen Khachanov who has a 6.5 game start against the Italian hotshot Jannik Sinner. These two have a real history of tiebreak sets with five of the 11 they have played going the distance and three others have been 6-4. Three such sets in a straight sets win for Sinner would still see Khachanov cover the spread here but the Russian has won a set in every meeting with Sinner and that bodes well for his chances of covering the cap. To be fair to Sinner, he has looked awesome in this tournament but I thought Khachanov might struggle against Tomas Machac a lot more than he did in the previous round and against an opponent who brings out the best in him I fancy the Russian to stay within half a dozen games here.
Tips
Back A.Anisimova (+5.5 games) to beat A.Sabalenka for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with 888sport
Back K.Khachanov (+6.5 games) to beat J.Sinner for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with 888sport
Back them here:
