Second-round action at the Australian Open wraps up on Thursday, when Iga Swiatek, Madison Keys, Amanda Anisimova, Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic take the court. Anisimova is among my best bets.
Let’s take a look at all of my favorite plays on the Day 5 schedule at Melbourne Park.
Amanda Anisimova -1.5 sets over Katerina Siniakova (-115)
Anisimova absolutely loves the big stage, as evidenced by her recently Grand Slam runner-up performances at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 2025. More of the same may be in store for Melbourne, where the world #4 trounced Simona Waltert 6-3, 6-2 on Monday. Siniakova is a tougher opponent, but the Czech’s singles acumen is little more than mediocre (she might be the best doubles player in the world, for what it’s worth). Anisimova would have to play quite poorly in order to donate even 1 set to Siniakova, and the American has not played poorly — at least not at a major — for a while now.
Sebastian Baez -1.5 games over Luciano Darderi (-120)
Perhaps no one on tour is hotter than Baez to begin the year. The world #36 is 8-1 with a loss only to Jakub Mensik in the Auckland championship. Here are come of the opponents whom Baez has defeated: Stan Wawrinka, Taylor Fritz, Jaume Munar, Ben Shelton and Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard. Baez needed 5 sets to get past Mpetshi Perricard in the Aussie Open first round, but it was not exactly a physical contest against a 1-dimensional opponent. The Argentine should be fine for Thursday, when he faces Darderi for the seventh time. Baez leads the head-to-head series 4-2 and won their only previous hard-court contest at the 2024 U.S. Open. That match went to a fourth-set tiebreaker, but one of the sets Baez won was 6-0 — so he was clearly the superior player. Given how well Baez is playing right now, this one should be more routine.
Eliot Spizzirri ML over Yibing Wu (-125)
Spizzirri defeated Joao Fonseca in 4 sets on Tuesday, improving to 2-0 lifetime in that head-to-head series. That was a case of the former University of Texas standout physically outlasting an opponent whose body has been fragile (Fonseca currently has a minor back injury). Spizzirri can be expected to do the exact same thing in round 2. After all, Wu has endured a laundry list of injuries throughout his career. The 26-year-old from China appears to be healthy at the moment, but he can never be fully trusted – especially not in best-of-5 situations.
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