Tiafoe needed four sets to defeat Croatian Borna Coric and is one of several seeded players competing in the second round for the first tennis major of the Grand Slam season.
Please join me as I share my best Australian Open bets for Tuesday, January 16.
Australian Open Best Bets for Tuesday, January 16
Tuesday’s Australian Open matches begin promptly at 7:00 p.m. Eastern, so be sure to get your wagers in before the start of the match. Here are three best bets for Tuesday’s Australian Open Second-Round matchups.
Tomas Martin Etcheverry (+120) over Gael Monfils at DraftKings
Argentinian sensation Tomas Martin Etcheverry has a good second-round matchup with aging former World No. 6 Gael Monfils in a match between two players with careers trending in opposite directions.
Neither player has played well leading up to this event, but Etcheverry is a rising star with plenty of pop on his stick with a return game big enough to break Andy Murray six times on Sunday. Monfils fired 16 aces with five double faults in his straight-set victory over German Yannick Hanfman.
The double faults and diminishing return game will be Monfil’s undoing, and rising star Etcheverry will come through. Take Etcheverry to win this match at DraftKings Maryland.
Anastasia Zakharova (+150) over Kaja Juvan at Caesars
We move to the ladies’ side of the event and an excellent price for Russian Anastasia Zakharova to take down Slovakian Kaja Juvan on Tuesday. Zakharova came through the qualies here and is already match-tough with a 5-1 record leading up to tonight’s matchup.
Juvan hasn’t played much tennis since the Billie Jean King Cup in November. She smashed No. 23 seed Anastasia Potopova in straight sets with four breaks of serve, but Juvan hasn’t played many matches.
Potopova has been injured, and likely not 100%. She and her powder-puff second-serve are in for a much tougher battle down under with the bigger serving and equally big returning Zakharova. Take Zakharova in a surprise upset that probably isn’t an upset today at Caesars Maryland.
Tomas Machac (+175) over Frances Tiafoe at Caesars
Czech native Tomas Machac already has wins over Etcheverry and Aleksandar Kovecevic, and the “lucky loser” now finds himself playing with house money against Baltimore’s Tiafoe.
Machac has delivered in Davis Cup and is 10-5 on the hard stuff since the October Stockholm indoor event. He has a better-than-average serve and broke Japan’s Shintaro Mochizuki five times in his first-round victory.
Tiafoe needed four sets to get past an error-prone Borna Coric, and it looks as though the double-fault issues of Tiafoe’s past may not be over. “Big Foe” served eight double faults against Coric, but his 15 aces mitigated the errors and helped him defeat Coric in four sets.
Tiafoe was lucky to beat Coric with that many miscues on serve but won’t be so lucky on Tuesday against Machac. Take Machac +175 to win this match.
