Johanna Konta v Garbine Muguruza Winner Odds & Predictions

Spaniard too much for Konta to handle?

Tennis Betting

Australian Open 2019 Preview – January 17th, 2019 at 1:30 am

This is something of a heavyweight showdown in the second round of the Australian Open 2019. Britain’s Johanna Konta survived a scare in the first round to grind her way through and now the more substantial challenge of Spain’s Garbine Muguruza stands in her way. This could be a really interesting clash.

Johanna Konta v Garbine Muguruza odds*

Garbiñe Mugalarre 8/15
Johanna Konta 6/4
* (betting odds taken from bet365 on January 15th, 2019 at 6:31 pm)

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Johanna Konta made hard work of her first-round match. She was against Croatia’s Ajla Tomljanovic, a player she had already lost to this season, but Konta managed to survive a final set tie break. Konta had taken the first set on a tie break but just lost her way totally in the second. It wasn’t a game of high-quality tennis really. To be fair though Konta had to pull out of her warm-up tournament because of an injury concern.

There was doubts about her full fitness going into the tournament. It was the way that she played more than the narrow result really that would be the worry. It wasn’t good stuff from Konta who was trying too hard at times. She wasn’t even really sticking to her own strengths as she was looking to mix the game up with drop shots and net approaches. She’s better staying back and pounding it out. The one huge positive is that her serve was looking sharp.

Muguguara, the 18th seed at Melbourne Park had an easy time of things in the first round. She made sure of that. The Spaniard faced up Saisai Zheng And breezed through 6-2 6-3, relatively unchallenged. Much like Konta, 2018 wasn’t a great year for Muguruza by her expected high standards. The Spaniard pulled out of Sydney, her one warm-up tournament after having beaten Carla Suarez Navarro easily in the first round. It was a stomach illness.

The 2017 Melbourne quarterfinalist has met up with Konta twice before and it is the Brit who holds a 2-0 lead from those game. Both previous meetings were back in 2015 with Konta taking a three-set win at Eastbourne. She then triumphed again in three sets when they met later in the year at the US Open.

Prediction

Konta really doesn’t look back on her game yet. She has powerful assets and she doesn’t seem to be able to call upon them. Her serve looks her best route of attack at the moment and Muguruza looks the clear favourite to win this tussle at 8/15 odds* (betting odds taken from bet365 on January 15th, 2019 at 6:31 pm)