It was an emotional day at the Australian Open on Thursday when the Australian legend Lleyton Hewitt graced the singles courts for the final time in his career but with the celebration of a wonderful career behind us the opening Slam of the season continues apace on Friday.
The third round begins in both the men’s and women’s competition in Melbourne on Friday and with this being the first round that the seeds are due to play against each other we have got an excellent order of play.
The highlight of the day’s play is the match between Roger Federer and the so called ‘Mini Federer’ Grigor Dimitrov. This should be a match which is really pleasing on the eye and well worth watching for those in the UK whose sleep pattern is all over the place after the first four days of action.
Along with that match we’ve also got both world number ones – Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams – in action. They both compete in the night session on the various courts while all of Australia will be looking forward to the clash between Nick Kyrgios and Tomas Berdych which could be a great match in the evening session on Laver.
Thursday was an up and down day with Konta and Kuznetsov coming through with ease but frustration came in the form of Milos Raonic winning but not covering the handicap and the surprise Cornet defeat while Hewitt just didn’t have it in him to take a set. We’re still in profit for the tournament though and hopefully we can build on that on Friday.
It has to be said the forecast isn’t the best for Friday but most of the singles matches are on the three show courts which all have rooves so we shouldn’t be too inconvenienced by the weather.
The betting begins right from the start on Friday when the youngster Dominic Thiem takes on Belgium’s Davis Cup stalwart David Goffin over on Hisense. Thiem might be the lower seed going into this match but he is a warm favourite to win it.
I see it that way too. Although Goffin came through in the previous round against Damir Dzumhur he was anything but convincing and at one stage he looked like he had given up. Luckily for him Dzumhur folded like a cheap suit when the match was in the palm of his hands but there is no doubt the Belgian will have to improve to come through here.
Thiem was made to battle against Leonardo Mayer in the opening round but he took Nicolas Almagro to the cleaners in the second round which should set up a fully confident Austrian here.
This is the sixth time these two will have met in competitive tennis with Goffin leading 3-2 but it might be significant that Thiem has won their last two meetings. On what we’ve seen in this tournament I expect him to make it three in a row with plenty to spare here.
Moving into the evening and I like Marin Cilic to come past Roberto Bautista Agut with plenty to spare. Cilic has won their previous two meetings without dropping a set and he is yet to lose his serve in those matches too which shows the level he plays at in this match up.
Bautista Agut has shown all of his fighting spirit in this tournament so far having been taken the distance in both of his matches so far against much more limited opposition to the one he faces here. This is a bad match for the Spaniard and I’m expecting Cilic to come through here.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Cilic covers the 4.5 game handicap but tie-breaks got the better of me on Thursday so I’m going to take the former US Open champion on the set handicap rather than the game one as tie-breaks shouldn’t be as much of an issue then.
Moving into the women’s tournament and I’ve been keen on Kiki Mladenovic in this tournament and I’m not going to desert her in her match with the Australian youngster Daria Gavrilova.
Gavrilova did well to come past Petra Kvitova in the previous round but Kvitova blows hot and cold in Grand Slams so I’m not so sure she beat a lot in that match. We’ve yet to see Mladenovic crumble on the big stage so this should be a whole different proposition entirely.
Mladenovic is yet to drop a set in the tournament and is serving powerfully and has some heavy weapons on both sides which she has been full of so far this week. I think that power can be too much for the Australian in what is the bigger match of Gavrilova’s career.
Finally I’m going to have a small dabble in the big night game on Laver where a tie break in the opening set looks a little bit too big at 9/4. Both Nick Kyrgios and Tomas Berdych are pretty dominant on serve and both can be quite limited in the return game against a big server so I’m expecting the serve to dominate the early stage of this match while both men figure out what is coming down at them.
While they work everything out the first set can be a tight affair and I’ll have a small play on it going all the way. 9/4 is big enough on that without chancing who wins the set decider.
I’m also going to dabble back in the women’s outright event where the fourth quarter has suddenly opened right up with the exits of the likes of Venus Williams, Sabine Liskicki and Simona Halep and it would no longer be a surprise who comes through there.
Karolina Pliskova and Madison Keys will be favoured to come through to the semi-final from the bottom section but Johanna Konta has looked very good so far and with a perfectly winnable match on Saturday she could be the one to surprise them all and come through. She’s worth a small stake at a double figure price.
Back D.Thiem (-3.5 games) to beat D.Goffin for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Unibet
Back M.Cilic (-1.5 sets) to beat R.Bautista-Agut for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Sportingbet
Back K.Mladenovic to beat D.Gavrilova for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Betfair
Back N.Kyrgios vs T.Berdych – 1st set tie-break for a 2/10 stake at 3.25 with Skybet
Back J.Konta to win Women’s 4th Quarter for a 1/10 stake at 11.00 with Skybet
