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Market resistant towards Swiatek despite demolition
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Alexandrova the only favourite priced above 1.51/2
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Fruhvirtova and Mertens could cause shocks
Swiatek back in business with dominant victory
After a couple of wins which weren't as dominant as perhaps she would like, Iga Swiatek was back in business on Friday with a 6-0 6-1 demolition of Cristina Bucsa. However, the market is still very resistant towards the Pole, now trading at around 2.915/8, not a million miles away from her post-draw 3.6553/20.
To me, she still remains the dominant player in the field by some distance, so this outright pricing is a bit of a surprise. Elena Rybakina awaits in round four.
Alexandra's return game gives edge
With eight third round matches on the Saturday schedule, you'd expect to see some interesting match-ups and some pre-match value, but in my view, the card looks very tricky indeed. Only one favourite - Ekaterina Alexandrova - is priced up in excess of 1.51/2, so a one-sided day could well be in prospect.
Alexandrova faces Magda Linette, and is trading at 1.645/8 at the time of writing. Her better return game ensures her market price looks justified, but you can see why the market isn't making her one of the shorter-priced favourites given Linette's relatively solid serve.
Mertens faces tougher test to earn a third victory
Elise Mertens has been superb for this column so far in the tournament, winning back to back matches to give us a couple of winners, and the Belgian is now a heavy underdog at 4.77/2 to get past tournament second favourite Aryna Sabalenka.
Sabalenka is now six unbeaten this season following her win in Adelaide and straightforward wins to get to this stage here, and in fact, she's not dropped a set in any of those six matches either. She's also won her last five meetings against Mertens, illustrating the size of the task in hand if we are to see an underdog win in this match tomorrow.
The strange thing is that Sabalenka's hard court numbers aren't that great. Running at just under 103% combined service/return points won on hard court in the last 12 months, and winning just over 51% of points competed in this same isn't top ten level.
However, Sabalenka's been good at getting the job done when it matters. This is why I'm not as sold on her from an outright perspective, and I'm fascinated to see if Mertens can pick up another win tomorrow.
Fruhvirtova capable of a shock in all-Czech battle
The other strong favourite who looks a bit vulnerable is Marketa Vondrousova at 1.374/11 for her meeting with 17-year-old Linda Fruhvirtova, who picked up her maiden WTA title on hard court in Chennai in September.
Fruhvirtova, who was ranked number two as a junior, has also got to this stage with minimal fuss, dropping just nine games across four sets, and I wouldn't be shocked at all if she put up a good fight here, at the very least. On what is a tricky card, if I had a lean it would be towards Fruhvirtova against her higher profile Czech, but I'm not sold enough to get involved here.