Australian Open Day Four Preview: Serena Headlines Seven Americans Competing In Singles Action
The second round of the Australian Open comes to a close tonight as we embark on the fourth day of 2017’s maiden Grand Slam, and six-time champion Serena Williams is one of seven Americans who will be in action seeking third round spots in Melbourne.
Serena got past a tricky first-round opponent in Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic, defeating the former world number seven, 6-4, 6-3 and will face another tough opponent tonight when she takes on former world number five Lucie Safarova.
The Czech had to save nine match points in her first round match to escape with a 3-6, 7-6(7), 6-1 win over Yanina Wickmayer.
Serena leads the head-to-head 9-0 and the most recent matchup took place in the 2015 French Open final, a tight three-set affair that earned Serena her 20th career Grand Slam title.
The final match of the day out on Court 20 will see two Americans go head to head as Nicole Gibbs faces off with Irina Falconi. The two have never met on the WTA Tour, but Gibbs is 3-0 against Falconi in challenger events. Gibbs knocked off 25th seed Timea Babos in her opening round match in straight sets, while Falconi beat Xinyun Han in straight sets.
Jennifer Brady will be the other American woman competing in singles on Thursday when she takes on Great Britain’s Heather Watson.
Frances Tiafoe will look to build off of his first career Grand Slam main draw win when he plays 24th seeded Alexander Zverev. The two have never met, and Zverev is coming off a long five-set match against Robin Haase, so this could be one of the more intriguing matchups on the docket.
The other two Americans in action will see Donald Young take on 32nd seed Philipp Kohlschreiber and Ernesto Escobedo will play 21st seed David Ferrer, both on Court 7.
Defending champion Novak Djokovic will conclude the day session on Rod Laver Arena when he takes on Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin. The world number two is seeking his seventh title in Melbourne over the next two weeks and will look to improve to 6-0 against Istomin.
Ninth-seed Rafael Nadal will wrap up the matches on Rod Laver when he squares off against Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus. Nadal is 8-1 all-time versus Baghdatis and seeks a spot in the Australian Open third round for the 11th time in his career.
Ivo Karlovic will look to follow up his historic victory (set the record for most games in an Australian Open match) in the first round when he takes on Australia’s Andrew Whittington. Karlovic is seeking to reach the third round for the fourth time in his career and the first time since 2012.
Milos Raonic, Gael Monfils, Dominic Thiem and Grigor Dimitrov will all also be in action on the men’s side.
Three of the top six players in the world on the women’s side will play on Margaret Court Arena on the hunt for third round spots. U.S. Open finalist Karolina Pliskova gets things started when she takes in Anna Blinkova of Russia. Pliskova won 84 percent of her first serve points in her opening round victory, and will look to continue her excellent serving and reach the Melbourne third round for the third consecutive year.
Former Australian Open finalist and sixth-seed Dominika Cibulkova takes on Su-Wei Hsieh following Pliskova-Blinkova. Cibulkova won the only previous meeting between these two.
Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska is attempting to reach the third round for the eighth straight year and will take on veteran Mirjana Lucic-Baroni of Croatia. Lucic-Baroni won her first Australian Openmain draw match since 1998 in her opening round victory, while Radwanska needed three sets to defeat Tsvetana Pironkova.
Radwanska is 2-0 all-time against Lucic-Baroni, with the most recent matchup coming last year in Eastbourne.
Johanna Konta, Caroline Wozniacki and Elena Vesnina are also in action on Thursday.
Click Here to see the full schedule and order of play for day four in Melbourne.
