Naomi Osaka will hope to continue her winning run in the 2019 Australian Open against the Slovenian underdog, the 21-year-old Tamara Zidansek in the second round.
Watch & bet on Naomi Osaka v Tamara Zidansek live with bet365 here* on Thursday, January 17. The Osaka v Zidansek match timings will be announced soon.
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Naomi Osaka v Tamara Zidansek Head to Head
Their second round fixture in Melbourne will be the first time that the two players will be on the opposite ends of the court.
Osaka’s Rise to Fame
Osaka and Zidansek are two players in their early twenties who have had a career spell entirely different from each others’.
Osaka, who is currently the World No. 4, rose to prominence when she won the US Open last year after defeating Serena Williams in a highly controversial final. Remarkably enough, she followed that run with a runner-up feat in Tokyo, where she lost to Karolina Pliskova in the final. A week later, she also reached the semifinal in Beijing and secured a place in the top 5.
Her title at the Flushing Meadows was the second one of her career, with the other one being the Indian Wells Open. She won that competition in 2018 itself by edging past Daria Kasatkina in the final.
She has already staked her claim as a top player by starting the season on a good note. Osaka reached the semifinal in Brisbane earlier this year, having lost to Lesia Tsurenko in the final. As for her run in Melbourne, she defeated Magda Linette of Poland in straight sets in the opening round.
Zidansek’s Brilliant Start in Melbourne
The World No. 78 started her campaign at the Australian Open against the local favourite Daria Gavrilova. The odds were stacked against her but the Slovenian, in a sensational performance, won the match 7-5, 6-3 in an hour and 45 minutes.
Zidansek responded to Gavrilova’s play with 30 winners and only 23 unforced errors, in contrast to her opponent’s 18 and 38 respectively. More impressively, she saved 14 break points out of a possible 16 while winning four break points out of seven.
There were many games which saw the two players alternate between deuce and advantage multiple times but at the end, Zidansek came out on the top. She kept her calm in a situation when many players would have probably given up, not once but multiples times.
With that win, she has already achieved her best run of the season so far. As for her experience on the tour, she mainly played on the ITF circuit last season where she has had some success. She started the season outside of the top 100 and ended as the World No. 70 with four ITF titles.
Osaka v Zidansek – Who Will Win?
Zidansek is a relentless player who will not go down without putting up a solid fight. She has had a good run on the low-tier circuits and can very well dig into that experience to give Osaka a run for her money. While the Japanese will start as the favourite, this can very well go either way.
You can watch & bet on Naomi Osaka v Tamara Zidansek live with bet365 here on Thursday, January 17.
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