It didn’t take long for the upsets to take place with four seeded players making a first round exit from the top half of the draw. Yastremska, Navarro, Kostyuk and Alexandrova were the casualties and will likely be joined by several other when the second round begins today.
There were some early nerves for the world number one in her opening match. With the likes of Roger Federer and Rod Laver watching on she dropped her opening service game. She steadied the ship by breaking back and at 3-3, she won 9 of the next 11 games. Her power game was too much to handle for Rakotomanga but I can see Bai matching motors with her for extended parts of this match. Bai is 5 foot 9 herself and managed to win more than 50% of 2nd serve points in an upset win over Pavlyuchenkova who had a career high ranking of 11. Moreover, Bai has 4 matches under her belt after coming through the qualifiers here and only needs four games for the Overs to hit.
In her opening round win over Sasnovich, we witnessed everything that has made Paolini a fixture in the top 10 of the rankings in the last few years. She played excellent first strike tennis on serve and return – taking complete control of the baseline exchanges. This is a game plan she also employed with success in her previous meetings with Frech which was a comfortable 6-1 6-3 win. Paolini’s consistency and defensive skills using elite court coverage make her a very difficult player to beat. Unless you had hit through the Italian like Sabalenka or Rybakina, you are in for a very long day at the office.
Danilovic looked down and out when she trailed Venus Williams 0-4 in the deciding set but reeled of six consecutive games to win. Venus simply ran out of puff at age 45 and that is something that will not happen with Gauff who is arguably the best athlete on the WTA Tour. The concern with Gauff continues to be her 2nd serve and 7 double faults meant she dropped serve twice against Rakhimova. Believe Danilovic will stay with her for the first half hour before Gauff finds her range and dominates the second set. There will not be more than a single break of serve between them in the opening set.
Veteran Donna Vekic could not miss for the first hour of her battle against Andreeva but once the teenager took control of the contest, she won 10 of the final 11 games. She won more than 80% of 1st serve points and now meets an opponent who lacks the fire power required to trouble her. With respect to her recent matches the closest comparison to Andreeva is Gauff and Sakkari managed to win only 5 games in a loss to the American at the United Cup. The Greek then dropped serve 7 times in a straight sets loss to Kasatkina in Adelaide and that does not bode well here for a battle against one of the cleanest hitters on the WTA Tour. Andreeva will move one step closer to winning her maiden Grand Slam title.
Frech v Paolini: Paolini -4.5 ($1.75)
Gauff v Danilovic: 1st Set Score After 2 Games Draw 1-1 ($1.95)
Sakkari v Andreeva: Andreeva -5.5 ($1.90)
Hunter v Baptiste: Baptiste WIN ($1.62)
Mboko v McNally: Sets Mboko 2-0 ($1.96)
Jovic v Hon: Jovic -5.5 ($1.87)
Muchova v Parks: Over 18.5 games ($1.83)
Kudermetova v Tauson: Tauson WIN ($1.48)
Li v Linette: Linette +1.5 ($1.92)
Potapova v Raducanu: Potapova +1.5 Sets ($1.75)
Putintseva v Jacquemot: Under 21.5 games ($1.88)
Sabalenka v Bai: Over 16.5 games ($1.87)
Sonmez v Bondar: Sonmez -1.5 ($1.82)
Stearns v Marcinko: Marcinko WIN ($2.20)
Svitolina v Klimovicova: Over 18.5 games ($1.70)