Wozniacki and Azarenka to have little trouble at Australian Open
Published:Aside from Sam Stosur’s exit, upsets have been few and far between in the opening round of the Australian Open from within the women’s draw and the big guns should have little trouble negotiating the passage into the third round.
World number one Caroline Wozniacki, defending champion Kim Clijsters and big tournament fancy Victoria Azarenka are in action on the same day in the second round in Melbourne and can progress with ease again.
Caroline Wozniacki to beat Anna Tatishvili @ 1/33
Tatishvili may have triumphed in straight sets in the first round of the Australian Open, but this was against 15-year-old Ashley Barty, positioned close to 700th in the WTA rankings.
Meanwhile, Tatishvili was beaten in a qualifying match against another little-known Australian in Viktorija Rajicic ahead of the Brisbane International earlier this month.
Wozniacki looks a given at 1/8 to win 2-0.
Kim Clijsters to beat Stephanie Foretz Gacon @ 1/50
Despite being more injury plagued than Wozniacki and arguably facing a tougher opponent in round two, Clijsters is a shorter price than the world number one to reach round three.
Clijsters took a while to display her class in the opening round against teenage Portuguese player Maria Joao Koehler and now will know how impactful the hip injury is that caused her withdrawal in Sydney recently.
Her vibes after her early win were good and she is now 1/10 to triumph over Foretz Gacon in straight sets, which was the outcome in their only previous meeting back in 2002, while 8/11 is a decent price that over 16.5 games are played in the match.
Victoria Azarenka to beat Casey Dellacqua @ 1/50
Azarenka came into the Australian Open as the most in-form player with her tournament victory in Sydney and was perhaps the most impressive victor in the opening round, demolishing Britain’s Heather Watson 6-1, 6-0.
Buoyed by her home crowd and having already sprung a small surprise when defeating higher-ranked Serbian Bojana Jovanovski in the first round, Dellacqua will certainly pose more of a threat.
However, Azarenka has succeeded in all four of their previous sets 6-2 and it is a tempting 3/1 that this is the result of the first set in this second round match.
