World number three Naomi Osaka starts off her 2021 Australian Open challenge with a tricky first round match against Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on Monday, February 8, with the match likely to begin at around 10 am local time (11 pm BST or 6 pm Eastern Time previous day). Get the live streaming options of this Naomi Osaka v Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova match along with its preview, head to head, and tips here.
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Naomi Osaka v Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova Head to Head
On the WTA tour, there have been two previous matches between these two and both have won one apiece. The 39th-ranked Pavlyuchenkova won their first meeting in Hong Kong, needing two sets to make it to the semifinal of that competition in 2017 before going on to win the title.
Osaka made it 1-1 in 2019, at the Osaka Open in Japan, beating the Russian in the final to lift the trophy.
There was another meeting in the 2018 Hopman Cup where the Japanese number one needed a final set tie-breaker to squeak past the Russian.
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A three-time Grand Slam winner at such an early age, Osaka comes into the season on the back of a US Open title victory last year. Following that run which saw her make it as far as the final of the Cincinnati Open – which she withdrew from because of fitness concerns – and the US Open victory, Osaka started this season on the back of a 11-match winning streak.
And at the Gippsland Trophy, the tournament which kick-started her year, Osaka went past Alize Cornet, Katie Boulter and Irina Begu to enter the semifinal where she was scheduled to play Elise Mertens.
Unfortunately for the fans, Osaka opted to withdraw from that match as a precautionary measure to rest her niggles before the season’s first major. What that means is she is still to lose a match since August 2020, discounting obviously the Adelaide exhibition match loss to Serena Williams.
With a much better on-court maturity on display over the last few months, Osaka is a firm tournament favourite and while she faces a challenging first round opponent here, she the Japanese number can be expected to find a way to win it.
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Pavlyuchenkova 2-2 in 2021
It’s been sort of a mixed start for Pavlyuchenkova who lost in the first round of the Abu Dhabi Open but then went on to win the first two rounds in the WTA Melbourne. Wins against Misaki Doi and Anastasija Sevastova would have helped return some of her confidence but then against Garbine Muguruza, she fell away like a pack of cards.
It wasn’t so much to do with her as it was to do with Muguruza’s form, who had taken down every opponent in that tournament for the loss of two games/set or less. So when Pavlyuchenkova lost 6-1, 6-2, it wasn’t like she could have done too much better.
This follows 2020 in which Pavlyuchenkova had a solid start to the season with a quarterfinal at the Australian Open but had a weak ending on the clay courts of Prague, Rome, Strasbourg and Paris. And she now faces arguably the world’s best.
Osaka v Pavlyuchenkova Prediction and Tip
Pavlyuchenkova’s record at the Australian Open and her world ranking of 39th in the world, give her some hope because otherwise Osaka could have expected to start off at better than 2/9 to win this. If fully fit, Osaka can be expected to take this in straight sets.
Tip: Osaka to win in straight sets: 4/7 (bet365)
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The 2021 Australian Open will be played from February 8 to 21. You can watch & bet on the these matches here. Get your latest premium tennis predictions here.
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