Australian Open 2019 Preview – January 18th, 2019 at 1:30 am
This is one of the big heavyweight clashes of the third round of the Australian Open. What a cracker this could turn out to be. It features the reigning Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki as she tries to take a step closer to a title defence. She takes on the formidable challenge of Sharapova who has looked ruthless so far. The winner plays either Maria Sakkari or Ashleigh Barty in the fourth round.
Maria Sharapova v Caroline Wozniacki odds*
Caroline Wozniacki 10/11
Maria Sharapova 10/11
* (betting odds taken from bet365 on January 16th, 2019 at 5.31 pm)
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Maria Sharapova stormed through her opening match at Melbourne Park this year, not dropping a game as she crushed Britain’s Harriet Dart. That was just all too easy for her at the end of the day and it wasn’t much more of a challenge for her in the second round either. Sharapova went up against Sweden’s Rebecca Peterson and again found herself cruising with just three games dropped.
The reason that this high-profile showdown is happening early in the draw is because Sharapova isn’t seeded for the tournament. So she was always going to be a very dangerous floater for one of the bigger seeds to come across earlier than hoped. That falls on the shoulders of the reigning champion Caroline Wozniacki.
Wozniacki took out Alison Van Uytvanck in her first round match and then had a comfortable time of things in the second round against Sweden’s Johanna Larsson. Wozniacki needs this bit of confidence behind her as well after failing to get past the second round in her first tournament of the season at the ASB Classic. Wozniacki was just on fire with her serve in the second set of her match against Larsson.
Of course, though, she will face a lot more returns from Sharapova when they meet. It is Russia’s Sharapova who leads the head to head 6-4 against Wozniacki. The last meeting was a while ago though has Sharapova won in the quarterfinals of Madrid on clay against the Dane. That was no great surprise as the Russian is fantastic on the dirt. But Wozniacki has won the last two hard court clashes, including a win at the 2014 US Open in three sets. Their only other Grand Slam meeting was at the 2010 US Open with Wozniacki.
Prediction
This is going to be an incredibly tough match to call really. Neither have faced a great challenge so far but we have to say that Sharapova looks pretty steely-eyed at the moment and focused. She has the better serve of the two at the end of the day and a tremendous defence. Either way, the safest option looks over 2.5 goals set at 5/4 odds* (betting odds taken from bet365 on January 16th, 2019 at 5.31 pm)
