On the men’s side, the “Big Five” own 54 of the last 56 Major titles, spanning the last 14 years. Their incredible dominance will inevitably come to an end soon, but perhaps not quite yet. Novak Djokovic is the favorite to win his third straight Major, and will remain world No.1 regardless of this fortnight’s results.
On the women’s side, the last eight Majors have been won by eight different players. An astounding 11 different women were capable of ending this tournament as the world No.1 at the start of play on Monday. And none of those 11 players are the odds makers’ favorite to win, with that of course being 23-time Major Champion Serena Williams. Her opening round match is one of the five matches previewed below.
Milos Raonic (16) vs. Nick Kyrgios
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This is a blockbuster first round matchup, made possible by Kyrgios’ subpar 2018 season. The 23-year-old is now only the No.4-ranked Australian man, currently at 52nd in the world. He usually gets up for big matches like this, but in recent years has reacted in different ways to playing tight matches in Melbourne. Two years ago, he was booed as the home crowd sensed a lack of effort during an early round loss to Andreas Seppi. Last year however, Kyrgios played some great tennis in upsetting Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in an electric Rod Laver Arena. Raonic has quietly rebuilt his ranking after missing much of 2017 due to injury, though he hasn’t won a title in over three years. They’ve split six previous meetings, with Kyrgios taking their only match on a hard court, in 2016 in Miami. With two of the biggest servers on tour, we’re in for a plethora of aces, and likely a tiebreak or two. As Kyrgios prefers, and usually requests, this will be a night match on the newly-renamed Melbourne Arena (formerly Hisense). The grounds-pass crowd of rowdy Australians will be eager to get behind Nick. This is a tough one to pick, but I slightly favor the steadier and more reliable player in Raonic.
Simona Halep (1) vs. Kaia Kanepi
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This is a rematch from the opening round of the last Grand Slam event, when Kanepi upset the world No.1 at the US Open last August in straight sets. Since that time, Halep has only played three matches, and is 0-3. A back injury has hampered her play, and put an early end to her 2018 season. Last week in Sydney, she was taken out by Australian No.1 Ashleigh Barty. Simona is also now without Darren Cahill on her team, and is going without a coach for the time being. Halep is certainly far from her best right now. However, Kanepi herself hasn’t played at all since the US Open, due to an undisclosed injury. While an upset here feels entirely possible, and I don’t like Halep’s chances to advancing deep into the second week, I feel Simona will find a way to avenge her US Open loss on Tuesday.
Serena Williams (16) vs. Tatjana Maria
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This will be Serena’s first match since the infamous US Open final last year. She did play two exhibition events leading up to this fortnight. In Abu Dhabi, she lost to her sister Venus in a third set decided by a 10-point tiebreak. But Serena went 3-0 in singles at the Hopman Cup two weeks ago. Notably at the Hopman Cup, she did hold her shoulder several times as the tournament progressed, so I’ll be curious to see if she is 100% here. If so, considering she made the final at both of the past two Majors so early into her comeback, I agree that she’s the favorite to win this tournament. And I’m confident she’ll be more determined than ever to win after feeling she was so wrongfully treated at the US Open. In her opening round, she’ll face a fellow mother. The 31-year-old Maria is ranked 73rd in the world, and shouldn’t give a healthy Serena too much trouble in their first career meeting. But all eyes will be on Serena in her first official match in over four months.
Mihaela Buzarnescu (25) vs. Venus Williams
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Serena’s sister will also play her opening round match on Tuesday. Venus made a thrilling run to the final here two years ago, but is coming off a pretty lackluster 2018. Last season, she went just 17-11, and 4-4 at the Majors. She’s now ranked 36th in the world, and subsequently is unseeded here. She also arrives without a coach, as she parted ways with her longtime coach, David Witt, during the offseason. Venus though did get a nice win over Victoria Azarenka in Auckland to start her season. In Buzarnescu, Venus has actually gotten a relatively kind draw. Mihaela had the best season of her career last year, breaking into the top 20 thanks to her first career WTA title in San Jose. Unfortunately, just a few days later in Montreal, Buzarnescu rolled her ankle while deep into a third set against Elina Svitolina. This was quite an upsetting scene, as Mihaela laid on the court and screamed out in pain for several minutes. And sadly, Buzarnescu has lost all the momentum she had before the injury, going 0-5 since Montreal. These two have never played before, and both could use a win to gain some confidence. After going out in the first round of this tournament a year ago to Belinda Bencic, I think Venus will be keen to get the win here. If she plays well, she should be able to dictate play and get through this one.
Stan Wawrinka vs. Ernests Gulbis
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The 2014 Australian Open champion never got back to the peak of his abilities in 2018 coming off serious knee surgery the year prior. A year ago, Wawrinka was clearly still physically struggling, and went out in the second round of this tournament to Tennys Sandgren. Overall he went just 17-17 last year, though he did show signs of rediscovering his form as the season progressed. Meanwhile it’s also been a rough few years for Gulbis, who has battled multiple injuries. 18 months ago, Ernests was ranked 589th in the world. But Gulbis is now back inside the top 100, and is coming off a run to the final in Stockholm last October. However, the 30-year-old Latvian has only two wins in his entire career at the Australian Open. He’s 2-8 lifetime in Melbourne, and hasn’t won a match since 2014. These two veterans have surprisingly only played once before, and that was almost a decade ago on clay. I like Wawrinka’s chances to advance here, in which case he’d play the winner of the Raonic/Kyrgios match on Thursday.
Other notable matches on Day 2:
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- Six-Time Champion Novak Djokovic (1) vs. Qualifer Mitchell Krueger
- US Open Champion Naomi Osaka (4) vs. Magda Linette
- ATP Finals Champion Sascha Zverev (4) vs. Aljaz Bedene
- WTA Finals Champion Elina Svitolina (6) vs. Qualifer Viktorija Golubic
- Dominic Thiem (7), who went 0-3 in Abu Dhabi two weeks ago vs. the unpredictable Benoit Paire.
Order of play
Rod Laver Arena
- D. Aiava (WC) vs M. Keys (17)
- T. Maria vs S. Williams (16)
- A. Zverev (4) vs A. Bedene
evening session
- N. Djokovic (1) vs M. Krueger (Q)
- N. Osaka (4) vs M. Linette
Margaret Court Arena
- K. Majchrzak (Q) vs K. Nishikori (8)
- T. Zidansek vs D. Gavrilova
- V. Williams vs M. Buzarnescu (25)
evening session
- S. Halep (1) vs K. Kanepi
- B. Paire vs D. Thiem (7)
Melbourne Arena
- K. Muchova (Q) vs Ka. Pliskova (7)
- B. Coric (11) vs S. Darcis
- L. Siegemund vs V. Azarenka
- S. Stosur vs D. Yastremska
not before 0800 (GMT)
- N. Kyrgios vs M. Raonic (16)
1573 Arena
- F. Fognini (12) vs J. Munar
- E. Bouchard vs S. Peng (WC)
- P. Andujar vs D. Shapovalov (25)
- V. Golubic (Q) vs E. Svitolina (6)
Court 3
- J. Konta vs A. Tomljanovic
- S. Zheng vs G. Muguruza (18)
- T. Daniel vs T. Kokkinakis (Q)
- S. Wawrinka vs E. Gulbis
Court 5
- I. Ivashka vs M. Jaziri
- N. Vikhlyantseva (Q) vs V. Lepchenko (Q)
- F. Krajinovic vs M. Cecchinato (17)
Court 7
- E. Mertens (12) vs A. Schmiedlova
- A. Bolt (WC) vs J. Sock (WC)
- C. Giorgi (27) vs D. Jakupovic
- J. Tsonga (WC) vs M. Klizan
Court 8
- Q. Wang (21) vs F. Ferro
- H. Chung (24) vs B. Klahn
- P. Kohlschreiber (32) vs Z. Li (WC)
- D. Cibulkova (26) vs S. Zhang
Court 10
- P. Parmentier vs A. Potapova
- L. Vanni (Q) vs P. Carreno Busta (23)
- J. Chardy vs U. Humbert
Court 12
- Z. Diyas vs A. Krunic
- L. Djere vs E. Donskoy
- M. Granollers vs M. Copil
- S. Kenin vs V. Kudermetova (Q)
Court 13
- A. Ramos-Vinolas vs M. Fucsovics
- D. Kasatkina (10) vs T. Bacsinszky
- S. Voegele vs S. Hsieh (28)
- A. Popyrin (WC) vs M. Zverev
Court 14
- L. Harris (Q) vs D. Medvedev (15)
- B. Fratangelo (Q) vs G. Simon (29)
- C. Suárez Navarro (23) vs C. Burel (WC)
- Kr. Pliskova vs A. Blinkova
Court 15
- N. Jarry vs L. Mayer
- B. Andreescu (Q) vs W. Osuigwe (WC)
- L. Zhu (Q) vs M. Gasparyan
- M. Marterer vs G. Sakharov (Q)
Court 19
- I. Karlovic vs H. Hurkacz
- M. Brengle vs M. Doi (Q)
- L. Pouille (28) vs M. Kukushkin
- I. Swiatek (Q) vs A. Bogdan
Court 20
- S. Querrey vs P. Herbert
- M. Barthel vs A. Sevastova (13)
- D. Goffin (21) vs C. Garin
- V. Kuzmova vs K. Kozlova
Court 22
- J. Vesely vs R. Harrison
- G. Pella vs J. Sousa
- A. Cornet vs L. Arruabarrena
