Monday’s schedule featured defending champions Caroline Wozniacki and Roger Federer, and Tuesday’s follows up with the debuts of the No. 1 players in the world – Simona Halep and Novak Djokovic.
With another scorcher forecast, Halep and Djokovic could be spared the worst of it because both are playing in the evening – Halep at Margaret Court Arena and Djokovic at Rod Laver Arena.
MORE: Day 2 preview – Champions take baby steps
Tennis as an international sport will once again showcase the gamut of players, ranging from 16-year-old Whitney Osuigwe from the United States to the grizzled 211cm Ivo Karlovic of Croatia, who turns 40 next month.
To Day 2 …
No. 1 Novak Djokovic vs. No. 231 Mitchell Krueger
After winning five Australian Opens in six years, the 31-year-old Djokovic has exited early, by his standards, the past two years – to Denis Istomin in 2017 and Hyeon Chung a year ago.
He’s aiming to break that two-year anomaly and win title No. 7 at Melbourne Park this year. His opponent in the first round, the No. 230-ranked Krueger, has successfully made it through qualifying for the second Grand Slam event in a row after failing in his 12 previous tries. At the 2018 US Open he lost in the opening round of the main draw to then No. 97-ranked Roberto Carballes Baena. But for the 25-year-old from Dallas, 15,000-seat Rod Laver Arena and Djokovic – their first meeting – surely will be a totally different animal.
Prediction: Djokovic in three sets.
No. 17 Milos Raonic vs. No. 51 Nick Kyrgios
If you don’t know how to spell ‘A-C-E’ you are not permitted to enter Melbourne Arena to witness this explosive first-round encounter. The experienced Raonic is currently third in the ATP’s 52-week serve rating while Kyrgios, who blasted 44 aces in a three-set win over Ryan Harrison in Brisbane two weeks ago, is fourth. John Isner and Karlovic occupy the top two spots.
Raonic, 28, and Kyrgios, 23, have met six times and their head-to-head is a dead even 3-3. Long rallies will be at a premium and returning serve will likely be the key to victory.
The marquee match of the first round was expected to be at Rod Laver Arena, but Kyrgios has always preferred the more proletarian confines of Melbourne Arena. He gets his wish. The theme song for this match – “Stand and Deliver.”
Prediction: Kyrgios in five sets.
No. 40 Martin Klizan vs. No. 177 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
Tsonga, now 33, reached the final of the Australian Open in 2008, losing to Djokovic. Last year he was out of action from February until September with a knee injury that required surgery. But he signalled he is back in form by reaching the Brisbane semifinals two weeks ago, including a quarterfinal win over tenacious Aussie teenager Alex de Minaur.
The left-handed Klizan, a 29-year-old Slovak, has a modest 3-5 record at the Aussie Open. But he won his only previous meeting with the acrobatic Tsonga in four sets at the 2012 US Open and will hope to repeat that result in Court 7 on Tuesday.
Prediction: Klizan in four sets.
No. 1 Simona Halep vs. No. 71 Kaia Kanepi
This match-up has to be something of a nightmare for top-seeded Halep. She was upset, in a similar position as No. 1 seed, by the big-hitting Kanepi 6-2 6-4 in the first round of the last Grand Slam – at the US Open in August.
The 33-year-old Estonian opted not play again after Flushing Meadows in 2018 and Halep, 27, was out of action with a herniated disc after the Beijing event in September. Last week the 27-year-old Romanian lost 6-4 6-4 to Ashleigh Barty in her return in Sydney.
Over her career Kanepi has frequently been a threat to top players, beating Caroline Wozniacki, among others, when she was No. 1 in 2011.
Two players, with only one match between them in more than three months, makes this a tricky encounter to handicap.
Prediction: Halep in three sets.
No. 17 Madison Keys vs. No. 191 Destanee Aiava
When the 23-year-old Keys feels the weight of shot from across the net on Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday, she may think she’s seeing a younger version of herself in Aiava. The 18-year-old Aussie has an explosive power on her groundstrokes that’s the equal of Keys.
One year ago Aiava was impressive in a highly-competitive first set against Halep in Rod Laver Arena before losing 7-6(5) 6-1. Her ranking was No. 193 at the time, and she’s now No. 191. That’s not progress, but a bout of glandular fever mid-season in 2018 didn’t help the athletic Aussie who’s sometimes mistaken for 2018 US Open champion Naomi Osaka.
Aiava qualified and lost to Osaka in the second round in Brisbane and went out in the first round in Sydney. Keys, a 2015 Aussie Open semifinalist, didn’t play a warm-up tournament. To use old Aussie tennis parlance, these two women know how to give the ball a good ‘nudge.’
Prediction: Keys in three sets.
No. 106 Bianca Andreescu vs. No. 198 Whitney Osuigwe
Two of the emerging generation of women’s players meet in the opening round on Court 15. Andreescu, 18 and from Canada, was the revelation of the Auckland event two weeks ago – qualifying and upsetting both Wozniacki and Venus Williams on the way to her first WTA final. Osuigwe, a 16-year-old American, is in the draw via a United States Tennis Association wildcard exchange with Tennis Australia. She was the world junior champion in 2017 and won the French Open juniors that year.
Andreescu, a qualifier, and Osuigwe both practiced in Florida in December and played a practice set against each other. While rain that day interrupted things after just four games, this time they should be able to play to a finish.
Prediction: Andreescu in three sets.