Three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka will begin his Australian Open campaign against Portugal’s Pedro Sousa in the first round on Monday, February 8, with the match timings still unknown. Get the live streaming options of this Stan Wawrinka v Pedro Sousa match along with its preview, head to head, and tips here.
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Stan Wawrinka v Pedro Sousa Head to Head
This will be the first meeting between the World No. 18 Wawrinka and the World No. 108 Sousa.
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Wawrinka Will Look for a Quick Start
2014 Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka will return to one of his favourite slams on Monday. Not so much a top contender for the title anymore, the 17th seed would still like to win multiple matches and give himself a real chance of adding to his three major titles.
Playing for the first time in 2021 at the Murray River Open this week, Wawrinka registered two wins before withdrawing from the quarterfinals due to fatigue. But both of those wins were unconvincing as he was stretched to the limit by lower ranked players.
First, he had to come from a set down to beat World No. 90 Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan and then he had to battle past World No. 174 Alex Bolt, who had taken him to the third set tiebreaker in the Round-of-16 contest.
Wawrinka, however, will want to focus on the brighter side. He is 2 from 2 after all and has shown the ability to hold nerves in crucial situations.
The 35-year-old Swiss, has 16 career titles, including the 2014 Australian Open, the 2015 French Open and the 2016 U.S. Open. The last of his titles came on clay in Geneva in 2017.
A former World No. 3, Wawrinka produced mixed results last season, reaching the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, semifinals in Doha and the last eight in three other tournaments. He also featured in a couple of Challenger events in Prague, winning one and reaching the quarterfinals in the other.
The Swiss right-hander, who tested positive for coronavirus at the end of last year, will be making his 16th straight main draw appearance at the Australian Open. In 2014, he defeated both Novak Djokovic (quarterfinal) and Rafael Nadal (final) to become the champion. He also reached the semis in 2015 and 2017, falling to Djokovic and Roger Federer, respectively, in thrilling five-setters. Last year, the Swiss was defeated by Alexander Zverev in the quarterfinals.
A five-time major semifinalist and nine-time quarterfinalist, Wawrinka has never exited the Melbourne slam in the first round and he will be hoping to get off to another good start.
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Sousa To Have a Tough Time
Facing Wawrinka in the first round will be World No. 108 Pedro Sousa.
The 32-year-old Portuguese is 1-1 this year, having won his first-round contest at the Murray River Open against Australia’s Li Tu in straight sets before going down to Britain’s Dan Evans in the next round.
A 16-time winner at the Challenger and Futures level, the right-hander reached a career-high ranking of 99 in 2019.
His best performance at the Tour level came at the Argentina Open last February when, playing as a lucky loser, he reached the final of the clay-court event. He got lucky in the semifinals as well as his opponent and top seed David Schwartzmann withdrew with an injury. Sousa was eventually outclassed by Norway’s Casper Ruud in the final.
As far as Grand Slams are concerned, Sousa has made the main draw only twice and is yet to win a first round match. He fell to Alex de Minaur in the first round of the Australian Open in 2019 and to American Mitchell Krueger at the U.S. Open last year.
Wawrinka v Sousa Prediction and Tip
This should be a straightforward win for Wawrinka. Expect him to win three.
Tip: Wawrinka to win in straight sets: 1/2 (bet365)
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The 2021 Australian Open will be played from February 8 to 21. You can watch & bet on the these matches here. Get your latest premium tennis predictions here.
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