Aussie Open - Day 2

Jo Wilfried Tsonga v Martin Klizan

Frenchman Tsonga is a strong favourite in this match - just 1/3, but it's hard to have that much confidence in him given how much of last season he missed. Injury meant he missed everything between February and September, and upon returning to action he won just once in six matches.

Things went much better last week in Brisbane, where he reached the semi-finals of course, but he won three relatively close matches against Thanasi Kokkinakis, Taro Daniel and Alex De Minaur.

Martin Klizan is much more a clay player, but with such uncertainty about Tsonga, I'd be willing to chance a small bet on the Slovakian at 11/4, which seems more than acceptable.

1pt Klizan to beat Tsonga at 11/4 (General)

Ryan Harrison v Jiri Vesely

Harrison has lost his last five matches in a row, but there are plenty of reasons to suggest he's worth backing when he faces Jiri Vesely.

Harrison's recent defeats have included losing to Kevin Anderson (in five sets in the US Open) and Nick Kyrgios in Brisbane - a match with just a single break of serve.

Harrison's best form comes on hard courts - he has a career 191-141 record on the surface and he's comfortably a top 50 player on the surface.

Vesely is all about clay, which is an obvious good starting point. He reached the semi-finals in the Canberra Challenger last week, but he only beat players ranked in the 400's to get that far. At 4/6 Harrison is worth a bet here.

2pts Harrison to beat Vesely at 4/6 (Will Hill)

Leonardo Mayer v Nicolas Jarry

This match is a re-run of the pairs 2018 meeting on the same courts in the 1st round. That match saw Mayer run out the 3-0 winner, and he went off as the 2/5 favourite in that match. Fast forward a year, and I really cannot see that enough has changed to warrant the bookmakers struggling to split them.

Jarry has lost five of his last six matches and just don't like the hard courts - playing nearly all his events on clay, and gaining most of his success on the surface.

Mayer struggled at the end of last season, but a quarter final appearance in Auckland last week will give him confidence and he should be a strong favourite in this one.

1pt Mayer to beat Jarry at 4/5 (General)

Ilya Ivashka v Malek Jaziri

Ilya Ivaska is rising up the ranks very quickly indeed and comes here fresh from winning the Canberra Challenger event. He's already posting the sorts of numbers to suggest he'll enjoy further success in 2019.

He should show a stronger service and receiving game than Jaziri who retired from his match against Sam Querrey in Sydney last week. We could back the 8/15 on him winning the match, but I'd prefer the 10/11 offered by Marathon that he wins giving up a set. If you don't have a Marathon account, another way to support him could be on the games handicap - he's 5/6 with Bet365 -3.5 games.

2.2pts Ivashka -1 Set at 10/11 with Marathon Bet

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