There weren’t as many upsets in the women’s draw on Tuesday, but there were still some notable exits with Jelena Jankovic, Flavia Pennetta and Andrea Petkovic going out; all three players remain winless in 2015.  I watched the end of Petkovic’s match with Madison Brengle, who reached the final in Hobart last week.  Petko struggled on serve and seemed flustered (and lacking in confidence?) as she made some strange tactical decisions in the decider.  Brengle played a great match and served it out (after a succession of breaks) in real style, finishing with an ace.  The slate of second round matches from the bottom half of the women’s draw is a tad underwhelming.  The upsets have created some surprising match-ups, but huge opportunities for lower ranked players to pick up valuable ranking points.  Therefore, just one match previewed for Wednesday, but i’m planning multiple posts in preparation for Thursday…

Poll Results: 49% of readers correctly predicted that Goerges would beat Bencic, 45% predicted Garcia would beat Kuznetsova, 31% predicted that Wickmayer would beat Pavlyuchenkova, 69% predicted that Azarenka would beat Stephens and 59% predicted that Giorgi would beat Pennetta.

Fantasy Game Updates: In the TFF DreamTeam, Grand Slammers leads the way from The Moomonds (ME!) and PauLyearley_GameSetMatchWTA.  Racket Rally is blocked at work so i’ll update this later.

1. Jarmila Gajdosova v Simona Halep (AO, R2)

A below-par Simona Halep had few issues in dispatching Karin Knapp on the first day of the 2015 Australian Open, but the situation may not be as straightforward in the second round.  In just 88 minutes, Halep defeated Knapp, 6-3 6-2 in an error-strewn match that saw a total of 66 unforced errors.   In the next round, Halep takes on Jarmila Gajdosova, who has had an excellent start to the year.  Gajdosova broke new ground on Monday in winning her FIRST ever match in the main draw of the Australian Open.  Gajdosova defeated Alexandra Dulgheru, 6-3 6-4 to win her fourth match of the year.  Both her losses in 2015 have come against top ten players as she continues a wonderful resurgence on the WTA tour.

Gajdosova is a huge shotmaker with the ability to hit winners from anywhere on the court.  However, she’s never really found a way of waning it in when things aren’t going so well.  She could catch a hot streak against Halep, but it’s unlikely to last for two whole sets.  As much improvement as Gajdosova has shown over the last six months, i’m not sure if she is ready to have a really huge win, which is what this would be.  I’d fancy Gajdosova nicking a set, but Halep’s consistency and ability to mix it up to win through on the day.  Halep was disappointing on day one, but it’s likely she will continue to improve after the bug that forced her to pull out of Sydney and as the tournament moves forward.

Prediction: Halep d. Gajdosova in 3 sets

WTA Australian Open 2nd Round Predictions

Lucie Hradecka d. Polona Hercog in 3 sets

Julia Goerges d. Klara Koukalova in 2 sets (1 tight, 1 easy)

Karolina Pliskova d. Oceane Dodin in 2 tight sets

Ekaterina Makarova d. Roberta Vinci in 2 tight sets

Sara Errani d. Silvia Soler-Espinosa in 2 sets

Yanina Wickmayer d. Lara Arruabarrena in 3 sets

Kristina Mladenovic d. Bethanie Mattek-Sands in 3 tight sets

Eugenie Bouchard d. Kiki Bertens in 2 sets

Caroline Garcia d. Stefanie Voegele in 2 sets

Carina Witthoeft d. Christina McHale in 2 sets

Katerina Siniakova d. Irina-Camelia Begu in 3 sets

Yaroslava Shvedova d. Monica Puig in 3 sets

Peng Shuai d. Magdalena Rybarikova in 2 sets

Zarina Diyas d. Anna Schmiedlova in 2 sets

Maria Sharapova d. Alexandra Panova in 2 sets