We take a look at the Australian Open first-round matches between Lloyd Harris and Mikael Torpegaard as well as Victoria Azarenka against Jessica Pegula.
Photo Copyright – Steve Haag Sports
Australian Open 2021
9 February
Melbourne Park
Selected First Round Matches
Lloyd Harris 36/100 vs Mikael Torpegaard 2/1
South African Lloyd Harris is a hot favourite here for the South African contingent. The man from Cape Town who has a career-high ranking of 72 takes on Danish minnow Mikael Torpegaard who is currently ranked 188th. Although Harris is the younger of the two, he does come in with a bit more experience, winning three ATP Challenger singles titles as well as featuring in the knockout rounds of the Australian Open, French Open and US Open. This will be Torpegaards first grand slam after he made it past the qualifying rounds for the first time and he should find it tough. This will also be the first meeting between the pair.
Selection: With Harris holding all the aces, he should be able to win this quite comfortably but 36/100 doesn’t really offer much value hence the selection is to take him to win the second set at 5/10.
Victoria Azarenka 3/10 vs Jessica Pegula 24/10
Two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka returns to Melbourne Park this year after missing last year’s tournament due to personal reasons. Her best result in 2020 came at the US Open when going down to Naomi Osaka in the final. World number 61 Jessica Pegula is Azarenka’s challenger here with her best-ever finish at a Grand Slam coming in the 2020 US Open when she made it to the third round.
Selection: Pegula really does face an uphill task here, with that being said Azarenka is the strong selection but the 3/10 doesn’t seem very appealing, hence the selection is to take the best of 3 sets score 2:0 in Azarenka’s favour at 15/20.
Play Of The Day: Multiple @47/10
Llyod Harris 2nd set winner – 5/10Victoria Azarenka best out of 3 sets 2:0 – 15/20David Goffin Win – 3/10Elina Svitolina Win – 3/10Daniil Medvedev to win second set – 2/10
