First round women’s action at the 2020 Australian Open kick-starts on Monday, January 20 at Melbourne Park and few of the seeded players will be in action on the day. Get the latest Barbora Strýcová v Sorana Cirstea & Elena Rybakina v Bernarda Pera tips, previews and live streams below among other matches.
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Barbora Strýcová v Sorana Cirstea Predictions & Preview
World number 33 Barbora Strycova will be up against the 74th-ranked Sorana Cirstea in her opening round match and this will just be the second time they will face off at this level. The last time they played was on clay in Istanbul last season and Strycova had needed three sets to overcome Cirstea in that match.
Strycova kick-started her season with a shock win over Johanna Konta at Brisbane but that was followed by back to back defeats. First, Alison Riske sent her packing in Brisbane and then Bernarda Pera edged her out in the first round at Adelaide.
What should give Strycova some confidence is her opponent’s form, with Cirstea having lost 23 matches on hard court surfaces over the past two years and won just 19. Even this season, Cirstea was sent packing in her opener at Shenzhen before losing the qualifying at Hobart.
Tip: Strycova to win: 4/7 (Click here to get these odds with Unibet)
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Elena Rybakina v Bernarda Pera Predictions & Preview
30th-ranked Elena Rybakina will be up against the world number 70, Bernarda Pera in their Australian Open opener on Monday. This will also be their second meeting, with the first match on the clay of Jurmala last year going in favour of Pera.
It could be a different matter on hard court surfaces and because of the kind of form that Rybakina has shown this year already.
Kick-starting her season with the Shenzhen Open, Rybakina wasted no time getting to the final of that tournament before going down to Ekaterina Alexandrova in the final. Not to be satisfied by that result, she then participated at the Hobart International where she rolled into the final for the second week running.
Only this time, Rybakina went on to win it. She edged out Shuai Zhang in straight sets to make it 9-1 on win-loss record this season.
Pera was knocked out in the opening qualifier at Brisbane but managed to qualify for the Adelaide main draw where she reached the second round. However, with a poor overall win-loss record on hard court surfaces, Pera will be up against it in this one.
Tip: Rybakina to win in straight sets: 7/5 (Click here to get these odds with Unibet)
Wang Qiang v Pauline Parmentier Predictions & Preview
China’s Wang Qiang will be up against 133rd-ranked Pauline Parmentier in her opening round match at the Australian Open in her first round match. This will be the first time they will face off at this level.
Qiang reached her career-best ranking of 12th in the world in September last year following a US Open campaign which was her best Grand Slam performance. She made it to the quarterfinal before Qiang was sent packing by Serena Williams.
However, since then her performance has fallen by the wayside and so has her ranking. Now 29th in the world, Qiang began the year well with a couple of wins to take her to the Shenzhen Open quarterfinal but she then fell to Ekaterina Alexandrova. This was followed by a first round defeat, and a crushing one at that to Angelique Kerber at Adelaide, leaving her with more questions than answers.
Parmentier might not pose too much of a threat, having lost 21 of her 31 hard court matches before this season though. Qiang should take this in straight sets.
Tip: Qiang to win in straight sets: 11/20 (Click here to get these odds with Unibet)
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Maria Sakkari v Margarita Gasparyan Predictions & Preview
This will be the third meeting between Maria Sakkari and Margarita Gasparyan who will be featuring in their opening round match at the Australian Open. Both their previous matches came in 2018 and it’s 1-1 on head to head. Sakkari won on the hard courts of Seoul while Gasparyan was a winner at the indoors of Luxembourg.
However, things have gone in different directions since then for the two players with Sakkari having climbed to a career-best of 22nd in the world while Gasparyan having struggled to take that step forward. Even this year, Sakkari might have lost her opener at Brisbane but that defeat came at the hands of Naomi Osaka and in three, hard-fought sets.
She should get past Gasparyan and in straight sets.
Tip: Sakkari to win in straight sets: 5/6 (Click here to get these odds with Unibet)