Australian Open 2019 Preview – January 17th, 2019 at 1.30 am
Second round action from the Australian Open open in the early hours of Thursday morning is Venus Williams v Alize Cornet. This is all great action to come from the top section of the draw and the winner of this could be meeting up with world number one Simona Halep in the third round.
Alize Cornet v Venus Williams odds*
Venus Williams 4/7
Alize Cornet 11/8
* (betting odds taken from bet365 on January 15th, 2019 at 6:31 pm)
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This should be a pretty good showdown actually. Cornet sailed through her first round match getting the better of Lara Arruabarrena only dropping the four games along the way. The French player hasn’t been past the third round action at Melbourne Park in any of her last nine appearances at the tournament. In fact, she has never been past the fourth round of any Grand Slam in her career.
But she looked confident enough in that opener. She went to Melbourne Park off the back of a good run in Hobart where she ran to the semifinals, losing there against Sofia Kenin. So she has had some good time out on the court this season. Will it be enough to see her edge her way past Williams from the position as underdog?
Cornet trails Williams 6-1 in the head to head. However, the French player won the last encounter between the two, which was back in 2016 out in Hong Kong. That was on the hard court and the win was earned over three sets.
Williams had a bigger struggle than expected in her first round match at Melbourne Park. She had to fight her way back from having lost the first set against Belgium’s Mihaela Buzarnescu and Williams just got herself back into it after winning the tie break in the second set.
That was after losing the first on a tie break. So it was two very long sets before she powered her way to a 6-2 win in the final set. Williams, the 2017 losing Australian Open finalist, slipped in the first round of action last year.
Predictions
We have a sniff of an upset happening in this one. Cornet is not a major threat who is going to go tearing on through the rounds. But Williams was pushed hard in the first round and her track record at Grand Slams last season wasn’t good. This may be a tight scrap, but Cornet looks a bit of value to get herself over the line at 11/8 odds* (betting odds taken from bet365 on January 15th, 2019 at 6:31 pm).
