Two women who won their opening Australian Open matches in straight sets face off as Kateryna Bondarenko faces Apia International Sydney champion and 23rd seed Svetlana Kuznetsova. This match takes place on the Hisense Arena as it starts play at 11:00 Melbourne time, with the winner facing either 12th seed Belinda Bencic or Timea Babos in the third round.
So Far In Melbourne
Both Bondarenko and Kuznetsova got their Australian Open campaigns off to a pretty good start.
It was Bondarenko who had the tougher opening round match of the two. Facing home favourite Ajla Tomljanovic wasn't going to be an easy match and the Australian served for the first set twice, but Ukranian showed great fight as she eventually triumphed 7-6, 6-3 on Show Court 2. Whilst it wasn't her best match, it was still a good performance for Bondarenko and she will have some confidence coming into this clash.
It would be difficult for Kuznetsova to improve from her first round performance. Following an impressive run to the title in Sydney, she came into Melbourne with a lot of confidence and built on that greatly as she stormed past Daniela Hantuchova 6-0, 6-2 on Show Court 3. The Russian has been extremely impressive of late and she will be extremely confident going into this- she'll also be the favourite.
Analysis
Kuznetsova has won all the previous meetings between the two, though the fact they haven't played in over seven years mean that will have probably no influence on the outcome of this match. However, the Russian may have some confidence from it.
The 23rd seed will be confident and her game has been impressive recently, though she must keep it at that level. Whilst her talent is clear, she can be erratic and it is hard to tell when she will have a bad day; it could be here. If the Russian wants to boost her chances of winning this one, she will need to make sure she does all the basics well and will need to hope her serve is working well.
One advantage that Bondarenko has is that Kuznetsova is the favourite for this match; there is very little pressure on the Ukranian. That will certainly be a positive, though she will certainly have to play a bit better than she did on Monday to give herself a good chance of pulling off an upset here. She must also play extremely well and must look at serving well as Kuznetsova will certainly attack on any second serve opportunity she gets. Bondarenko must also try to finish the points early; the longer a rally goes on in this match, the greater the chance that Kuznetsova wins it.
Assessment
This match has the potential to be tight, but Kuznetsova should be able to win this. If she plays well it could be quite comfortable, though Bondarenko will be tricky to play against.
Prediction: Svetlana Kuznetsova in three sets.