Our tennis writer previews the most exciting ladies’ third round matches at the 2018 Australian Open.
The Women’s draw has already expected the obligatory first wave of casualties amongst the contenders. Former semi-finalist Johanna Konta and two-time Grand Slam Champion Garbine Murguruza count themselves amongst the vanquished.
The heat in Melbourne at present seems to be levelling the playing field to a great degree, making the task of identifying winners all the more precarious.
Bernarda Pera 32/10 vs Barbora Strycova 2/11
This is quite an interesting one. 31 year-old Barbora Strycova is something of a journeywoman, with two WTA titles and nine ITF titles. She is heavily favoured here having reached the fourth round in both 2016 and 2017. She lost to home favourite Ashleigh Barty in Sydney’s Quarter-finals. And her opponent this week is something of a cipher.
Croat born American Bernarda Pera is making her first appearance in a Grand Slam and just knocked out Number Nine seed Johanna Konta. The 23 year-old has won eight ITF titles and has never played Strycova before. I think the enigmatic American is excellent value at 32/10.
Lucie Safarova 22/10 vs Karolina Plisikova 3/10
A battle of the Czech’s sees tattooed powerhouse Karolina Plisikova come up against former French Open finalist Lucie Safarova. Plisikova leads the head-to-head between the two players 5-2, having won all four of their matches on the hardcourts. Having said that, their last meeting in 2016 was a three-set thriller on the hardcourts of Beijing, so there has been some time since their last encounter. Safarova lost in Sydney in the Round of 32 while Plisikova lost in the semi-finals of Brisbane leading up to this event.
Plisikova should have too much power for a player more suited to the red clay of Rolland Garros. She is operating under the radar and could be a threat in this event, especially looking at the big name casualties thus far.
Carolina Garcia 4/10 vs Aliaksandra Sasnovich 18/10
Carolina Garcia was really the breakthrough star of 2017, with that phenomenal run that saw her reach the WTA Finals last season. Her two victories last week year see her going into this as the considerable favourite, winning her only encounter with Sasnovich on Tokyo last year. She really made hard work of it in the blistering Melbourne sun against unheralded Czech teen Marketa Vondrousova.
Aliaksandra Sasnovich is perhaps one of the more dangerous opponents to be playing at this point of the tournament. She went through qualifying in Brisbane before ultimately losing to Svitolina in the final. She also just beat last year’s semi-finalist Mirjana Lucic-Baron. I think Sasnovich is exceptional value at 18/10 to keep this dream start to the year going.
Maria Sharapova 11/10 vs Angelique Kerber 13/20
Clearly this has to be considered the glamour tie of the round, with two former champions and iconic pin-up figures of women’s tennis clashing. Maria Sharapova’s gradual rehabilitation following her doping ban has already landed her a title: she won in Tianjin last year. She overcame 14th seed Anastasjia Sevatsova in the second Round and looks in good form. She leads the career head-to-head against Kerber 4-3, though their last match came in 2015.
Kerber has won their last two meetings. She also claimed the Sydney title by beating Ashleigh Barty in the final and looks to be reclaiming the form that saw her really contest the hegemony of Serena Williams. While Sharapova may appear better value, I am sticking with Kerber for an Aussie renaissance.
Written by Damien Kayat for @Hollywoodbets.net
