Australian Open 2019 Preview – January 17th, 2019 at 1:30 am
The second challenge for Serena Williams at the 2019 Australian Open comes in the form of Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard. Williams just stepped into action at Melbourne Park and won at a breeze in the first round. Will Bouchard be able to find anything in her game to slow down the American?
Eugenie Bouchard v Serena Williams odds*
Serena Williams 1/7
Eugenie Bouchard 9/2
* (betting odds taken from bet365 on January 15th, 2019 at 6:31 pm)
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It seems like such a long time ago now that we were talking about Eugenie Bouchard as the next big thing on the tennis scene. She has faded away and her Grand Slam campaign in Melbourne this year looks as if it could come to abrupt end. Bouchard came out of the starting blocks well it has to be said as she took a confident 6-2 6-1 win over Shuai Peng in the first round.
This is the stage at which she went out last season in the Australian Open and she hasn’t been past the third round in any of her last three attempts. Back in 2014, she was on fire, reaching the semifinals of the Australian Open, the French Open and the Final of Wimbledon. Since then in Grand Slams it has been much of nothing from her.
Serena Williams on the other hand, well, there’s not much more which could be said about her. She was up against Germany’s Tatjana Maria in the first round. Williams powered her way through unopposed, dropping only the two games on the path to a straight sets victory. The winner of this match will face the winner of Carla Suarez Navarro or Dayana Yastremska in the third round.
Williams and Bouchard have met twice before, but not for some time. Their first meeting was in 2013 at Cincinnati with Williams getting the job done in three sets after having dropped the opener. Their second encounter was a year later at the WTA Finals, with Williams winning 6-1 6-1.
Prediction
It should be a walkover for Williams really. There is literally nothing in the game of Bouchard that is going to offer up any kind of resistance to the power of Williams. It is a short-priced banker of a Williams 2-0 success at 4/9 odds* (betting odds taken from bet365 on January 15th, 2019 at 6:31 pm).
We would probably push to a Williams -5.5 games handicap at around 10/11* (betting odds taken from bet365 on January 15th, 2019 at 6:31 pm).
