The fourth round of this year’s Australian Open is about to start and I’ll take a look into the match that will be least talked about. Muguruza-Osaka, Sabalenka-Williams and Swiatek-Halep have Grand Slam final written all over it, but Hsieh Su-wei and Marketa Vondrousova should be up for an interesting match as well.
While the young Czech has already been to that stage herself, losing the 2019 French Open final to Ashleigh Barty, Hsieh is looking to reach her first Grand Slam quarterfinal at the age of 35. Although I’m aware you “don’t say the girl’s age in public” as Hsieh reminded us in a charismatic on-court interview after beating one of our outrights in Bianca Andreescu, it only shows that she ages like a fine wine.
Of her last ten matches against top 10 opposition, the Taiwanese won seven and showed some really good form this week as well, beating Pironkova and Errani alongside Andreescu. It’s Hsieh’s fourth fourth round appearance at a Grand Slam and three of them have come in Melbourne. She might miss the fans, but it seems like she found her happy place at the Happy Slam.
Hsieh and Vondrousova already met this year in Abu-Dhabi in what was the first match of the season for both. Hsieh came out on top in a third set tiebreak and I don’t think we’ll see one-way traffic today either. Both players are known for their steady and crafty game from the baseline. Hsieh loves to absorb and redirect pace against bigger hitters and catch them off-guard. Now Vondrousova doesn’t particularly fall into that category, but the Czech always tries to be the aggressor in rallies. This should make for a fascinating matchup with a lot of tactics involved.
Unlike the books, I expect a very close contest here with a lot of back-and-forth and potential breaks. Both women want to prove themselves at this stage and I don’t expect one of them to give in. That’s why I decided to go for the over in games as well as in sets.
Bet: 0.5 units on Over 20.5 games at 1.93 with Pinnacle
Bet: 0.5 units on Over 2.5 sets at 2.62 with bet365
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