Yulia Putintseva v Karolina Pliskova Betting Tips [19 January 2023]

Yulia Putintseva will meet 30th seed Karolina Pliskova in the Australian second round. The winner of this match will face unseeded opposition in the last 32, either Varvara Gracheva or qualifier Lucrezia Stefanini.  This will be the sixth time the two go head to head in a renewal of a rivalry that has grown one-sided with Pliskova winning all previous five WTA circuit matches, (three on an outdoor hard court) with the most recent being won by Pliskova in Cincinnati two years ago. However this is the first time that the two are meeting in a Grand Slam. Pliskova defeated 53rd-ranked Xiyu Wang in the first round for the loss of four games. and looked every bit of the player who topped the rankings six years ago. Pliskova was as high as fourth last year but slipped out of the top 30. The Czech is up to 23rd in the live rankings as she has no points to defend. That’s because a hand injury sustained in training saw her miss out on last year’s Australian Open Her best finish in this tournament has been a semi-final appearance in 2019. Two warm-up tournaments for Pliskova saw her knocked out in the last 32 of both. 

Yulia Putintseva came into the tournament ranked 47th  but after defeating Romanian Sorana Cristea in three sets (middle set lost) in the first round, has moved up  to 42nd in the live rankings. Before this tournament, Putintseva had a 2-3 record but did get to the last eight in Hobart. Two of her losses have come against Iga Swiatek and Belinda Bencic in the United Cup.The first round of this tournament saw her have to come from behind to beat Sorya Cirsta. Putintseva is bidding to reach the third round of the Australian Open for the fourth time. However, the last seven Grand Slam events she’s played have seen her fail to get past round two.

Having had little to do in the first round, the seeded Karolina Pliskova comes into this match the fresher of the two and considering that as well as her dominating record against the unseeded Yulia Putintseva, we predict a Pliskova win but it may take three sets to do so.