The Australian Open got underway on Sunday this year, but that means the First Round matches have been shared out over the first three days of the tournament.
The selections from the Day 2 schedule can be read below, although the thread is a short one.
It is a busy Sunday but the selections can be seen below and I will update the totals for the tournament in the Day 3 thread as the First Round comes to a close.
Daniil Medvedev - 8.5 games v Terence Atmane: At the US Open, Daniil Medvedev was happy to fly under the radar with all of the attention on Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz. While most would have been hoping to see the rematch of the Wimbledon Final, Daniil Medvedev had other plans and managed to beat the Spaniard before coming up short against Novak Djokovic in the Final.
He has twice reached the Australian Open Final and should have won in 2022 when leading Rafael Nadal by two sets and looking in dominant form.
However, once again the current World Number 3 can head into a Grand Slam event knowing that others will be getting a lot more of the headlines than he will himself. That will not bother Daniil Medvedev in the slightest and he remains one of the top hard court players in the world, which means he has every chance of winning this Grand Slam title.
The expectation is that Daniil Medvedev will be able to make a comfortable start to another hard court Grand Slam event as he prepares to face a Qualifier. You always have to respect any player that has managed to win three matches to get into the main draw of an event, but Terence Atmane will have a big gap to bridge.
The young Frenchman is making his Grand Slam debut in the main draw and being a left hander will give Terence Atmane a chance, but he will also know that this is a considerable step up compared with the usual opponents he faces on the Tour.
Terence Atmane did have a decent run at the Shanghai Masters, while he has a 3-4 record against top 100 Ranked opponents on the hard courts in his career.
In saying that, Atmane will not faced someone like Daniil Medvedev too often and the ability to get as many balls back in play as the World Number 3 can when at his best. This is his first match of the 2024 season, but Medvedev has made short work of early Round opponents in recent hard court Grand Slams and has the returning ability to break down the lefty.
For a while Terence Atmane should be competitive, but Daniil Medvedev can exert his control on the match and eventually find the breaks of serve to win and cover a big number.
Andy Murray - 2.5 games v Tomas Martin Etcheverry: He has spoken openly about considering his future in the sport if the results do not improve, although Andy Murray has been in bullish mood ahead of the Australian Open. The former World Number 1 believes he is playing some of his best tennis since returning from a hip injury that had threatened to force him into retirement and Andy Murray is still keen to end his career on his own terms.
The main ambition through the first half of 2024 has to be on stringing some positive results together and making sure he is Seeded when Wimbledon comes around. Last year Andy Murray only barely missed out on doing that, but he has to defend the points from a Third Round run at the Australian Open and those for reaching the Final in Doha.
The draw was thus very important for Andy Murray and he may be grateful to be facing Tomas Martin Etcheverry, a Seeded player who tends to produce his best form on the clay courts.
Overlooking the Argentinian would be a mistake considering these two players met twice on the hard courts last season and both won one of those matches. Andy Murray won at the Indian Wells Masters, but Tomas Martin Etcheverry got the better of Murray on the indoor courts in Basel.
That was one of the few successes Tomas Martin Etcheverry enjoyed on the hard courts and he has just a 9-14 record on the surface over the last twelve months. It is a run that includes losing both matches played this month against players who are Ranked below Andy Murray.
Andy Murray was also beaten in his sole match played in 2024 against Grigor Dimitrov, although the Bulgarian did go on to lift the title in Brisbane. It perhaps gives Murray some confidence having been beaten in three sets in that event, while he has the slightly stronger return numbers compared with Etcheverry on the hard courts over the last twelve months.
Both have had similar successes when it comes to the serve and so the narrow edge is with Andy Murray to win this First Round match and at least open the door for another run into the Third Round. There is a potential for him to meet Novak Djokovic in that Round, which would be a very tough challenge for Andy Murray, but the main focus has to be on winning a couple of matches here and not allowing his World Ranking to be dented.
There was a time when Andy Murray would have entered Grand Slam events looking to win, but his best chance may yet be at Wimbledon and it is important to improve his Ranking in order to earn a 'better draw' when that tournament comes around in July.
A competitive match is expected in this First Round, although the lean is with Andy Murray to find a way through in four sets. This should see him do enough to cover this handicap mark as a relatively small favourite as he gets the better of the Seeded player.
Naomi Osaka v Caroline Garcia: The former World Number 1 returned to the WTA Tour earlier this month and now gets to perform on one of the biggest stages in the First Round at the Australian Open.
We last saw Naomi Osaka in September 2022 and she had been struggling for form as off court issues seemed to be holding her back. A decision was made to cut short the season, but Osaka was later confirmed to be pregnant and so the entirety of 2023 was devoted to becoming a mother.
This has given Naomi Osaka a new perspective and she has returned to the Tour with a clear goal of trying to win more Grand Slams. Four have already been bagged in her career with two of those won right here in Melbourne in 2019 and 2021 and it is clear that this is a player with a huge amount of potential to still fulfil on her return to the Tour.
Winning a third Australian Open title looks a long shot, but Naomi Osaka is unlikely to go away quietly and this is a tremendous challenge for Seeded Caroline Garcia.
The Frenchwoman looked to have finally found the consistency to become a real threat to win the biggest prizes when she took home the WTA Finals title at the end of 2022. However, Garcia failed to back that up as expected in 2023 and it has been a slightly mixed month for her before being handed this very difficult looking First Round match.
It will feel like the pressure is on Carolina Garcia, even if she is set as the underdog, and this is a player that has not always dealt with that as well as would have been hoped.
Caroline Garcia has to know she needs to serve well against an aggressive opponent who is still going to have some issues putting some consistency on the court. Naomi Osaka will go on the attack, but Garcia will be looking to get as many balls back into play and see whether she can break down a player who has been away for much of the last eighteen months.
The serve has been an effective weapon for Caroline Garcia, but she may have some struggle getting into the Osaka service games. Out of the two players, Naomi Osaka might be able to really get after the Garcia second serve and the latter will not have forgotten a pretty heavy loss to this opponent at this Grand Slam in February 2021.
Things have changed in the last three years, but the feeling is that Naomi Osaka is going to be the stronger player on the court even after her time away from the sport. Caroline Garcia can be very good at her best, but she is a pretty inefficient return player and it could be a case of the scoreboard pressure as well as the support for Naomi Osaka wearing her down in this big First Round match.
Winning the tournament might be unlikely, but Naomi Osaka was one of the top hard court players on the Tour when she really focused and she returns with some big ambitions. She can make a winning start to this tournament and open up the draw for a really big, headline grabbing run at the first Grand Slam of the 2024 season.
MY PICKS: Daniil Medvedev - 8.5 Games @ 2.10 Bet365 (2 Units)
Andy Murray - 2.5 Games @ 1.90 Bet365 (2 Units)
Naomi Osaka @ 1.80 Paddy Power (2 Units)
Emil Ruusuvuori - 6.5 Games @ 1.72 Bet365 (2 Units)
Felix Auger-Aliassime - 1.5 Sets @ 2.00 Paddy Power (2 Units)
Jordan Thompson - 1.5 Sets @ 1.72 Paddy Power (2 Units)
Alexandre Muller - 1.5 Sets @ 1.72 Paddy Power (2 Units)
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