The second week of the Australian Open gets underway on Sunday when half of the singles draws plays down to the quarter final stage of the competition as things start to get real in the opening Grand Slam of the year.
All of the action takes place on the three main show courts from here on in which means that it will be much easier to follow all of the tennis, although if you are in the UK you will need to continue to be a night owl to watch all of it.
Rod Laver Arena
We begin the fourth round with the defending champion Aryna Sabalenka back on the main court. She has a tricky test against Mirra Andreeva in what could be a classic to start the day with. Another women’s match follows that when the former US Open champion Coco Gauff meets the Swiss star Belinda Bencic who is back in the second week of a slam. The men conclude the day session when Carlos Alcaraz looks to make the quarter final again. He takes on the one remaining Brit left in the tournament in Jack Draper. We are down to just the one singles match in the night session now and that sees Novak Djokovic facing Jiri Lehecka.
Margaret Court Arena
We only have two singles matches over on the Margaret Court Arena on Sunday and we have to wait for a doubles match to be completed before they take to the stage. The women are on show first when Paula Badosa looks to secure another Grand Slam quarter final when she takes on Olga Danilovic who will be bidding to reach that far for the first time in her career. When they are done Tommy Paul will look to progress through to the last eight. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina will be the man standing in his way.
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John Cain Arena
The other two singles matches come over on the John Cain Arena where we have a men’s match and a women’s one. It is the doubles up first but when that is done two seeded women will be on show when the Olympic silver medallist Donna Vekic takes on Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Another doubles match follows that and then the number two seed in the men’s draw will look to make it into the last eight when Alexander Zverev goes up against the French ace Ugo Humbert who competes in the last 16 for just the second time in his career.
Betting
There isn’t much on my radar on Sunday but I am a little surprised that Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova is the outsider in her match against Donna Vekic. Vekic is a fighter and she’ll give this her all but there is a clear weakness behind her serve and that makes me think that the Croatian could come up short here, as she has done in their two previous meetings. Vekic has also just come off the back of a three hour epic against Diana Shnaider which might have left her energy levels a little lower than ideal.
Pavlyuchenkova has good memories here. Three of her five quarter final appearances in Grand Slam play have come here in Melbourne and the way she ripped Laura Siegemund apart in the last round means that she shouldn’t be disadvantaged in the energy and physicality stakes here. The Russian has been serving very well in this tournament and you have to think that strength compared to the weakness of Vekic is the reason why Pavlyuchenkova has won both of their previous meetings. It is why I think she wins this one too.
Tips
Back A.Pavlyuchenkova to beat D.Vekic for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Bet365