-
Mertens gives the column another winner
-
Muchova to test Collins
-
Gauff strong favourite over Raducanu
Mertens among Tuesday's winners
We picked up our second win in a row in the women's event with Elise Mertens getting the better of Garbine Muguruza in three sets, so we move into round two with an unbeaten record for the WTA column. There were also wins for most of the big names, with the likes of Aryna Sabalenka, Caroline Garcia, Karolina Pliskova and Ons Jabeur all progressing to round two.
As with the men's event, there's an abundance of strong favourites on Wednesday's schedule, so there'll either be shocks or routine victories on day three in most matches. Due to this, we'll focus on some of the more evenly-matched clashes on the schedule.
Muchova to compete with Collins
One of the highlights on Wednesday will be what should be a high-quality clash between Karolina Muchova and Danielle Collins, with the American, Collins the favourite at a current 1.705/7.
Muchova picked up a solid 6-2 6-1 win over Lesia Tsurenko in round one, and anyone looking at this match shouldn't be fooled by her lowly ranking - she was top 20 prior to a long-term abdominal injury which caused her to miss seven months of action around the end of 2021/start of 2022.
Collins battled past Anna Kalinskaya in three sets in round one, and faces an upgrade in opposition here, and does have the pressure of defending final points after losing to Ash Barty in the Championship Match in 2022. Numbers-wise, Collins has the slight edge, but there's not much in it, and a competitive match should be in prospect.
Kvitova's serve a threat in quick conditions
Petra Kvitova is slightly shorter-priced at 1.558/15 for her meeting with Anhelina Kalinina, and the Czech veteran has had a pretty decent start to 2023, including an underdog win over Elena Rybakina in Adelaide last week.
On hard court in the last year, Kvitova has a big serve advantage over the Ukrainian, and I just think she will be too solid for her tomorrow.
While Kvitova hasn't shown peak level for some time, she does still represent a threat in quicker conditions, which we are likely to see here.
Gauff a heavy favourite against Raducanu
I also am looking forward to the meeting between Emma Raducanu and Cori Gauff, with Gauff a strong 1.341/3 favourite to get the better of the Brit. Gauff has a much more solid serve, which should give her a big consistency edge over Raducanu, but I do think her price is somewhat short - perhaps it's the ankle injury worry surrounding Raducanu coming into the tournament. A win over German clay-courter Tamara Korpatsch really doesn't represent any validation that Raducanu is fully fit and playing well.
Finally, the qualifier Diana Shnaider is on my watch list for 2023 after some exceptional results in ITF events towards the end of 2022 which saw her gain over 200 places in the rankings to end up just outside the top 100 at the time of writing.
Maria Sakkari will be a huge test - by some distance the highest ranked player which she's faced in her career - but it will be fascinating to see where Shnaider's game is at against a top 10 opponent. There may be spots to keep her onside as the season develops.