Australian Open Women’s Singles Round 3 Odds & Picks
- Third-round action in the Australian Open women’s singles competition gets underway Thursday, February 11th at 7 pm EST
- The tournament’s top three seeds – Ashleigh Barty (#1), Simona Halep (#2) and Naomi Osaka (#3) – are all slated to be on the court
- All of the odds, picks and best bets for the third round of play are right here for your perusal
The first shocking result from the women’s singles draw at the Australian Open on Wednesday saw unseeded Kaia Kanepi ousting defending champion Sofia Kenin in second-round action. Kanepi now gets 28th-seeded Donna Vekic in third-round play on Thursday.
World #1 Ashleigh Barty was forced to scrape her way past Aussie compatriot Daria Gavrilova 6-1, 7-6(7). Barty needed to battle back from 6-5 down after squandering a 5-2 lead to win the second set.
Likewise, #6 seed Karolina Pliskova survived a test against Danielle Collins, winning 7-5, 6-2. That sets up a third-round meeting of Czechs named Karolina, as Pliskova squares off with #25 seed Karolina Muchova. Below we look at our top picks from the ladies’ side in round three.
Australian Open Women’s Singles Third-Round Odds
| Matchup | Moneyline |
|---|---|
| Aryna Sabalenka vs Ann Li | -345/+265 |
| Marketa Vondrousova vs Sorana Cirstea | -162/+130 |
| Su-Wei Hsieh vs Sara Errani | -195/+155 |
| Garbine Muguruza vs Zarina Diyas | -1250/+800 |
| Anastasia Potapova vs Serena Williams | +700/-1115 |
| Ons Jabeur vs Naomi Osaka | +460/-670 |
| Veronika Kudermetova vs Simona Halep | +180/-230 |
| Iga Swiatek vs Fiona Ferro | -375/+280 |
| Jennifer Brady vs Kaja Juvan | -480/+350 |
| Belinda Bencic vs Elise Mertens | +290/-385 |
| Anett Kontaveit vs Shelby Rogers | -186/+148 |
| Ashleigh Barty vs Ekaterina Alexandrova | -360/+270 |
| Kaia Kanepi vs Donna Vekic | -215/+170 |
| Karolina Muchova vs Karolina Pliskova | +123/-155 |
Odds as of Feb. 11th at DraftKings
Third-round action commences at 7 pm EST from the Rod Laver Stadium in Melbourne. The matches are being broadcast by the Tennis Channel, ESPN+, ESPN3, and ESPN2.
Which Czech Will Cash?
When these two Czechs enter the same tennis tournament, after their work is done, it’s almost always Karolina Pliskova who ends up cashing the bigger check. She’s won 17 titles, compared to one career win for Karolina Muchova.
The two are actually close friends and spent their two weeks in quarantine prior to the Australian Open practicing together. On the infrequent occasions that they’ve gone head to head, they’ve split two meetings.
💪 @KaPliskova is through to the #AO2021 third round with a 7-5 6-2 win over Collins.#AusOpen pic.twitter.com/6H4z7mV1Pi
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) February 11, 2021
Every time they’ve clashed, it’s been on the Grand Slam stage. World #6 Pliskova beat Muchova in straight sets 6-3, 6-2 in the Round of 128 at the 2019 Australian Open.
That same year, they met in an epic Round of 16 affair on the grass courts of Wimbledon. Muchova utilized her strong net play to outlast Pliskova 4-6, 7-5, 13-11.
First-timer in Rod Laver Arena😻❤️
Sooo BEAUTIFUL!!! pic.twitter.com/3lcoeHFClS— Karolina Muchova (@karomuchova7) January 21, 2021
Looking to advance to the second week of the Aussie Open for the first time since the year she beat Muchova, former world #1 Pliskova comes into this match off her best performance in many months.
Pliskova got better as her match against Collins continued. In the opening set, she scored points on 70-percent of her first serves, increasing the number to 77-percent in the second set. At the same time, her unforced errors lessened from 11 to seven.
Pick: Karolina Pliskova -155, Pliskova 2-1 (+320)
Cirstea Stages a Surprise
Veteran campaigner Sofia Cirstea shows just one WTA title on her career resume over 16 seasons. Her last WTA final appearance was in 2019. So you could say that more than a few heads were turning while the Romanian was toppling #9 seed Petra Kvitova 6-4, 1-6, 6-1 in the second round.
Next up for the world #68 is 20th-seeded Marketa Vondrousova. It will be the first meeting between these two players, so there’s no track record to draw upon, only current form.
Hard quarantine ➡️ Third round of the Australian Open
Sorana Cirstea 6-4, 1-6, 6-1 over No. 9 Petra Kvitova#getty pic.twitter.com/bFqBsTEbiR
— Christopher Clarey 🇺🇸 🇫🇷 🇪🇸 (@christophclarey) February 10, 2021
Cirstea, 30, has proven capable of occasionally raising her game on the big stage. She shows wins over the likes of Pliskova, Halep, Angelique Kerber and Kiki Bertens.
Once #14 in the world, #19 seed Vondrousova, 21, endured a dreadful 2020 campaign but appears to have rediscovered the groove that made her a French Open finalist in 2019. The Czech player reached the semi-finals of last week’s Yarra Valley Classic.
Vondrousova’s talent should be enough to overcome Cirstea’s experience.
Pick: Marketa Vondrousova (-162), Vondrousova 2-1 (+335)
Go With the Hot Hand at Australian Open
It isn’t often that an unseeded player is given the favorite’s role against a seeded player. However, Kanepi’s hot play of late is creating that anomaly against Vekic.
The 35-year-old Estonian’s second-round triumph over Kenin was her eighth top 10 win at a Grand Slam event and the 13th over her career.
What a performance 😱@KanepiKaia defeats Kenin 6-3 6-2 in just 64 minutes to continue a hot start to the summer for the Estonian 🇪🇪#AusOpen | #AO2021 pic.twitter.com/ZFuidJnVZC
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) February 11, 2021
Vekic won their only previous meeting. She took a 7-5, 6-3 decision from Kanepi in the Round of 64 at the 2019 US Open.
Once the world #14, Kanepi is 6-1 in 2021. She reached her first WTA singles final since 2013 just last week at the Gippsland Trophy in Melbourne Park.
Pick; Kaia Kanepi (-215), Kanepi 2-0 (+210)
An industry veteran, Bob literally taught the course on the history of sports at Elder College. He has worked as a Sports Columnist for Postmedia, appeared as a guest on several radio stations, was the Vice President of the Society For International Hockey Research in Ontario, and written 25 books.
