The Australian Open recently made the decision to open on a Sunday and use the first three days of the tournament for the First Round of the tournament.
The idea is to negate the late finishes that had been far too common at the event, and it might have helped a lot this season with the stormy weather that surprisingly impacted Day 1 of the first Grand Slam of 2025.
It has been a quiet start for the Tennis Picks, but an opening winner is better than beginning with a losing selection and on Day 2 there are a couple of selections that can be read below.
Sofia Kenin + 6.5 games v Coco Gauff: It is hard to believe that five years have passed since Sofia Kenin won the Australian Open title and the American has not really been able to sustain those heights, despite the huge potential she had.
Back then Sofia Kenin was the World Number 15, but it was still an upset to see her win the Australian Open.
Even now, Kenin is still only 26 years old, but she will enter the 2025 tournament outside of the top 80 in the World Rankings, while the little form shown in the warm up events has perhaps contributed to Sofia Kenin being set as such a big underdog to earn a spot in the Second Round.
The odds cannot be a big surprise with Sofia Kenin going up against compatriot Coco Gauff, who is right up there as one of the leading contenders to win the first Grand Slam of the 2025 season. Consistency has helped Coco Gauff move into the World Number 3 spot, while a strong run at the United Cup in the warm up to Melbourne will have filled the top American player with a lot of confidence.
Playing on the hard courts might be favoured by Coco Gauff, but she has grown as a player on the surface and in recent years she has shown improvement in each passing year on the Tour. In 2024 Gauff looked stronger behind the first serve and her return game was very strong, but working on the second serve will be the plan and especially if she is going to win a tournament like this one.
The edge is with Coco Gauff, but you have to believe the match up will give Sofia Kenin plenty of motivation on a court where she won her sole Grand Slam title.
The players last met a little over eighteen months ago at Wimbledon and it was Sofia Kenin who won on that day, despite being the World Number 128 going up against Coco Gauff as the World Number 7. We do know the latter is improved even more from that last match, but this is a very big spread and Sofia Kenin can serve well enough when feeling her tennis to at least win enough games to avoid looking like she has been crushed.
Backing against Coco Gauff in the early Rounds is not easy with the World Number 3 able to play without the pressure of being involved in the second week of a Grand Slam. She will have enough respect for Sofia Kenin to be really focused too, which makes Coco Gauff that much tougher to oppose as the more likely winner, but the higher Ranked player will have to play a really clean match to cover a spread of this size and so backing the underdog looks the right play.
Naomi Osaka - 4.5 games v Caroline Garcia: Things looked to be going to plan as Naomi Osaka cruised through to the Final in Auckland and she took the first set, which had all of the momentum behind the multiple time Grand Slam Champion.
Unfortunately Naomi Osaka had to pull out of the match just after securing the first set in the Final and that raised some concerns about her ability to take part in the opening Grand Slam of the 2025 season.
A former two time Champion in Melbourne, Naomi Osaka has admitted she may not be at 100%, but the scans indicate she can compete and it is a match against a familiar opponent in the First Round at the Australian Open.
Caroline Garcia beat Naomi Osaka twice last year, including at the Australian Open, while the Japanese player won once.
There was nothing wrong with Osaka's serving in the three matches against Caroline Garcia, but she was not able to get enough from the return of serve to really put the Frenchwoman under pressure.
Carrying an injury is not ideal, but Naomi Osaka has played some competitive tennis this year and that is more than can be said for Caroline Garcia. The latter was last in action in mid-September and Garcia has perhaps lost a little bit of love with the sport having announced the pressure that social media has also placed on her.
She has dropped down to World Number 58 and Garcia finished with a 10-10 record on the hard courts in 2024, and there were plenty of early defeats suffered too.
It is hard to guess how well Caroline Garcia can come out and serve having not been in competitive action for as long as she has and the feeling is that Naomi Osaka will be able to do more on the return than she managed in the three meetings last year.
From all of the statements made by Naomi Osaka in the last couple of days, it sounds like she is trying to downplay expectations. This is a concern when backing a player that can lose focus and quickly drop her level when things are not quite going to plan, but it feels like this is a good first match for the former Champion to find her feet in Melbourne.
As much as you have to have some concern about Osaka, the same applies to Caroline Garcia and this is a match which will have fine margins considering the amount of big hitting expected from both. That is where Garcia's match rustiness could work against her and Naomi Osaka might find the breaks needed to edge past this number on the cover.
MY PICKS: Sofia Kenin + 6.5 Games @ 2.00 Paddy Power (1 Unit)
Naomi Osaka - 4.5 Games @ 1.91 Bet Fred (1 Unit)
Australian Open Update: 1-0, + 1.44 Units (2 Units Staked, + 72% Yield)
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