Thursday will be a busy day in Melbourne, featuring 32 second round singles matches, and 42 first round doubles matches.
Casper Ruud, a two-time Major finalist in 2022, faces a frustrating foe in Jenson Brooksby. WTA Finals Champion Caroline Garcia takes on 2021 US Open Finalist Leylah Fernandez. And Aryna Sabalenka, the fifth seed, plays Shelby Rogers, who has a history of upsetting big names at Slams.
Plus fresh off his five-set win over Matteo Berrettini on Tuesday, Andy Murray goes against Australia’s own Thanasi Kokkinakis.
And Day 4 also sees Novak Djokovic and Ons Jabeur play their second round matches.
Each day this preview will highlight the four most intriguing matchups, while outlining the other notable matches on the schedule. Thursday’s play will begin at 11:00am local time.
Aryna Sabalenka (5) vs. Shelby Rogers – 11:00am on Rod Laver Arena
A year ago, Sabalenka endured one of the toughest spans of her career. She was striking double-digit double faults in the majority of her matches, and lost a heartbreaking fourth round match at this tournament to Kaia Kanepi in a final set tiebreak. Yet Aryna improved on her service woes as the year progressed, reaching her third Major semifinal in New York, as well as the championship match at the WTA Finals. And she’s off to a 5-0 start in 2023, coming off a title run in Adelaide where she didn’t drop a set.
Rogers owns some big victories over top names at Majors, such as Ash Barty, Petra Kvitova, and Simona Halep. But Shelby had a losing record in 2022, and lost both of her main draw matches at Australian Open tune-up events earlier this month.
Sabalenka is 2-0 against Rogers, with both matches taking place last year. In ‘s-Hertogenbosch on grass, she prevailed in straights. In Cincinnati on a hard court, she prevailed in three. On Thursday, Sabalenka is the favorite to prevail again, as she’s one of the top contenders to make a deep run in Melbourne.
Jenson Brooksby vs. Casper Ruud (2) – Not Before 12:30pm on Rod Laver Arena
Ruud started the season going just 1-2 ahead of this fortnight, and survived a tough four-setter against Tomas Machac in the first round. Casper missed last year’s Australian Open due to an ankle injury, before of course achieving his first two Major finals later in the season.
Brooksby also won in four sets on Tuesday, but spent nearly an hour less on court than Ruud. After having a breakout season in 2021, when he accumulated 49 match wins at all levels, Jenson fell into the dreaded sophomore slump in 2022, going just 27-23. But the 22-year-old is off to a more promising start in 2023, coming off a semifinal run last week in Auckland.
Ruud and Brooksby played last May on clay in Rome, with Casper prevailing in straights. But on a quicker surface in Melbourne, Jenson has a strong chance to upset the second seed. Almost all of the American’s good results have come on hard courts, and his in-your-face, impudent attitude can annoy many opponents, as it did Borna Coric at last summer’s US Open. And following all the career-changing success Ruud attained last year, he feels due for a letdown.
Leylah Fernandez vs. Caroline Garcia (4) – Third on Rod Laver Arena
Since the 19th of June, Garcia is 41-10, with four titles on three different surfaces. That includes the WTA Finals, the biggest title of her career to date. And Caroline also achieved her first Major semifinal in New York. She easily prevailed in straight sets in the first round.
Fernandez was the runner-up in New York a year prior, but went just 21-15 last season. A foot injury she suffered in the Roland Garros quarterfinals derailed her year, and she’s only 8-9 since. On Tuesday, she earned her first-ever victory at the Australian Open over another Frenchwoman, Alize Cornet.
In their first career meeting, Garcia must be favored based on her superb recent form. But Fernandez is one of the WTA’s most dogged competitors, and as we saw two years ago at the US Open, she loves to upset top seeds at Slams.
Andy Murray vs. Thanasi Kokkinakis – Last on Margaret Court Arena
What will Murray have left after his epic first round encounter against Berrettini, which lasted nearly five hours and was decided by a fifth-set tiebreak? The last few times Andy has won a five-setter at a Major, he’s lost the next round in straight sets. That includes the 2020 US Open (defeated Nishioka, lost to Auger-Aliassime), Wimbledon 2021 (defeated Otte, lost to Shapovalov), and the 2022 Australian Open (defeated Basilashvili, lost to Daniel). And the Berrettini match went longer than any of those previous five-set victories.
Kokkinakis easily prevailed in his first round, dropping only five games to Fabio Fognini in a match spread across two days. He’s coming off a semifinal run last week in his hometown of Adelaide, where he beat the likes of Andrey Rublev. And a year ago, he teamed with close friend Nick Kyrgios to win the men’s doubles title at this event.
Their only previous meeting occurred eight years ago in Davis Cup, where Murray easily beat Kokkinakis when the Aussie was just 19-years-old. Andy is keen to reverse his recent pattern at Slams, and make his first run to the second week in six years. But there’s no way his body will be 100% after such a grueling battle. And with the Aussie fans going wild for Kokkinakis, I like Thanasi’s chances of reaching the third round at his home Slam for the first time.
Other Notable Matches on Thursday:
Alize Cornet and Sam Stosur (WC) vs. Hao-Ching Chan and Zhaoxuan Yang (11) – Stosur has announced this will be the final tournament of her career. Hao-Ching and Zhaoxuan are a new partnership for 2023, and are 0-2 thus far.
Taylor Fritz (8) vs. Alexei Popyrin (WC) – Fritz defeated Nikoloz Basilashvili in a tight four-setter on Tuesday, while Australian Popyrin came back from two-sets-to-one down to win in five. Last August in Washington, Fritz beat Popyrin in straights.
Enzo Couacaud (Q) vs. Novak Djokovic (4) – Djokovic looked pretty sharp on Tuesday despite the hamstring injury he’s been recovering from. Couacaud is a 27-yea-old Frenchman who on Tuesday won only his second main draw match at a Major.
Marketa Vondrousova vs. Ons Jabeur – Jabeur prevailed in three sets on Tuesday over Tamara Zidansek. Vondrousova was a surprise finalist at the 2019 French Open, but her career has been hampered by injuries for the last several years.
Thursday’s full Order of Play is here.