Stan Wawrinka and Andy Murray will continue their Australian Open campaigns during second-round action on Thursday. They are set for respective meetings with Radek Stepanek and Sam Groth.
(Q) Radek Stepanek vs. (4) Stan Wawrinka
Wawrinka’s quest for a third Grand Slam title–and second at the Australian Open–got off to a routine start on Tuesday when he received a third-set retirement from injury-plagued veteran Dmitry Tursunov. It is looking like another typical beginning of a season for Wawrinka, who is almost always at his best in Chennai and Melbourne. Earlier this month he lifted his fourth Chennai winner’s trophy. Wawrinka triumphed Down Under in 2014 and he has not lost to anyone except Novak Djokovic (both times in five sets) since 2012.
Up next for Wawrinka is a seventh career meeting with Stepanek, who holds a surprising 4-2 edge in the head-to-head series. However, the 37-year-old was once 4-0 at his opponent’s expense and he has not defeated Wawrinka since 2009. The two veterans most recently faced each other last fall in Tokyo, where Wawrinka cruised 7-5, 6-3. Ranked No. 188 in the world, Stepanek is working his way back from injury and has already been extremely productive this fortnight. The Czech coasted through qualifying before beating Tatsuma Ito 6-4, 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-2 in round one. Stepanek will make this entertaining at times, but he will ultimately see far too many backhand passing shots whiz by him at the net.
Pick: Wawrinka in 3
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Sam Groth vs. (2) Andy Murray
Murray and Groth will be going head-to-head in singles for the first time in their careers on Thursday. They did spend plenty of time on court together last full, when the Murray brothers won an epic doubles rubber against Groth and Lleyton Hewitt to help lead Great Britain into the Davis Cup final (which the Brits eventually won over Belgium). It remains to be seen how the momentum from that triumph will propel Murray in 2016. The second-ranked Scot participated in the Hopman Cup earlier this month, but this is his first official tournament action. He got off to a fine start on Tuesday by easing past Alexander Zverev 6-1, 6-2, 6-3.
Groth is coming off a 7-6(6), 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 defeat of Adrian Mannarino. The 67th-ranked Australian finished with 27 aces and five double-faults while serving at 66 percent. Although those numbers are decent, Groth will need even better serving in order to compete with Murray, as this is going to be one-way traffic whenever baseline rallies ensue. The underdog joked that he hopes Murray’s wife goes into labor with their first child before the match starts, thus forcing the No. 2 seed to withdraw. Groth probably won’t be so lucky–and neither will the Aussie crowd if it is expecting to see more than three sets.
Pick: Murray in 3 with no tiebreakers
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Stan in straights and Murray in four losing 14-17 games
Stan in straights.
Andy over Groth. Thinking he’ll need 4 sets and lose # games – what Benny G said.
Stan and Andy, I don’t see Andy worried about Groth’s serve. Both in 3 sets
I think that both Stan and Murray will win their respective matches in 3 sets.
Groth is a poor mans Isner and Querrey. Huge serve and very little else and pretty much clueless after his serve has been returned.
Groth might push Murray to a first set tie break but after that Murray will figure out his serve and win the next two sets pretty easily.
He’s a homeless man’s version of Isner. Groth has very little touch and his groundstrokes are disgusting. If he isn’t sharp around the net on serve and volley’s… he’ll be done quickly
very quickly
Anyone that’s a poor man’s Isner… well, I’m… I’m…speechless.
#FirstTimeForEverything
got the right poll up there now
#oops
StAndy both in str8s.
Groth is laughable lol. Clank clank clank shank shank shank volley miss lob winner of murray another lob another lob and another and anothe missed volley and another and another etc…… bagel for Murray
Some credit to Murray who looks on fire atm.
Some deft touch coming off his racquet.
Groth wins a game!! Omg
Murray looking very good but is it because Groth makes him looks good?
Groth is too one dimensional, S & V not going to work against Murray on this court when Murray could just pass him or hit a lob. I think the one two punch will be better provided of course he serves big and well enough.
Murray is looking good, but Groth has been quite poor. I don’t know if it’s nerves, but he’s just been all over the place. So it’s been easy pickings for Murray.
Murray wins, losing only 6 games. He’s looking good right now. But Groth was just so bad that it’s hard to judge from a one-sided match like this. Still Murray is cruising so far.
Murray is playing well I must say but each time he met Novak here at the AO, no natter how well he played before that didnt matter. Novak seemed to have his number here.
Well, we will have to wait and see if they do end up meeting in the final. Murray hasn’t been able to challenge Novak in slams, but maybe things will change now.
There’s still a lot of tennis to be played, but Murray has a really good draw.
And what happened to Verdasco? Why cant he reproduce that kind of brilliance he shown vs Rafa against this Sela?
Verdasco is truly very disappointing, wasted opportunity when the draw looks so open to him now after beating Rafa.
Because Sela didn’t let him like Rafa did.
Verdasco is old and not very good.
Thought he’d still beat Sela but he’s even worse than I thought thanks to Rafa.
This was my prediction – posted on 1/20/16 @ 8:36 pm.
“I am going with Sela in 4 sets. I don’t think Verdasco will have enough left after the five setter with Rafa.”
Looking back through the predictions on the other topic thread, I did see nats say that Sela would win, too.
Nando is still alive. He is serving to tie it up at 5-all in the fourth set.
Audible obscenity now carries a penalty of one warning and a point deduction for the second offence. This must be as a result of the petition lodged on behalf of Rafa pointing out that other code violations are not punished like TV is.
Verdasco a gonner. Can’t say I’m sorry.
So Verdasco lost, as expected by many here. Very pissed with him, he’s only interested in beating Rafa, so mission accomplished!
I hope Rafa hammers him left, right and centre the next time(s) that they meet.
luckystar (AT 7:15 AM),
—he’s only interested in beating Rafa—
===
.
Beating Rafa is EVERYONE’s meal ticket.
I hope Rafa hammers him left, right and centre the next time(s) that they meet.
correction to my post AT 7:22 AM:
The last sentence in my post is luckystar’s phrase. It’s there unintentionally.
He’s interested in beating everyone.
It’s just that few let him.
He’s really not that good and looks old.