Opelka R. – Machac T.: Machac / +32,5 gems

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January 15, 2025

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Our tip: Opelka R. – Machac T.: Machac / +32,5 gems

15.01.2025 01:00

The Australian Open has second round matches on the schedule on Wednesday. Tomas Machac will challenge the American bomber Reilly Opelka at the 1573 Arena and should confirm his role as the paper favourite.

Machac returned to the Czech number one position on Monday, currently ranked 25th in the rankings, and is now seeded in Melbourne. In the opening round, the native of Beroun had no major problems with Sumit Nagal. He defeated his Indian opponent 6:3, 6:1 and 7:5.

Machac encountered much better opponents at the United Cup at the beginning of the year. In the mixed team competition, he managed to defeat former world number six Hurkacz of Poland and number thirty Italian Cobolli. Only after a great struggle did he fall in the end of the deciding set to the sixth player on the planet, Nor Ruud. In the semi-final he had the top four American Fritz on his back. In the second set he was already leading 5:2 and had two match points, but cramps took him out of the game.

Opelka was ranked 17th in the world in 2022. However, in the following two years he played only 19 matches due to prolonged health problems. His emergence this season was all the more surprising. In Brisbane, the 211 cm tall giant reached the final. However, he had to abandon his match with Jiri Lehecka at 1:4 due to a sore back. In Melbourne he started with a 3:6, 7:6(4), 6:3 and 6:2 win over Belgian Gauthier Onclin.

What to bet on:

Machac and Opelka will compete together for the first time. Machac should have the upper hand, he is much better in terms of movement and he is already able to beat the best players on a regular basis (last year he managed to beat Djokovic and Alcaraz). Of course, Opelka, with his size, builds his game mainly on his serve, so the Czech may have to wait a while for his opportunities on the return. We can expect some tiebreaks as well, Opelka has had at least one in the last four matches he has played. We therefore recommend combining a bet on Machac to win with a higher number of games played, namely at least 33.

Confidence:

7/10

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