Aryna Sabalenka vs Elise Mertens Prediction & Betting Tips - WTA Australian Open

Prediction published on 19/01/2023, 08:39  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 19/01/2023 at 09:39 in Tennis Predictions

Aryna Sabalenka is bidding to win her second title of the year. The fifth seeded Belarusian takes on Elise Mertens (seeded 26th) in the third round of the 2023 Australian Open. Sabalenka is the world number five but still hasn't reached a Grand Slam final. Three semi-finals have been reached in the past two years but her best performance in Australia is the fourth round. A win over Mertens will see her reach that stage of the Australian Open for the third successive year. 2023 has got off to a good start for Sabalenka with her winning the first Adelaide International tournament. That followed up an impressive run to the WTA Tour Finals at the end of 2022 where she had wins over four of the top five players in the world (including Iga Swiatek) before losing to Caroline Garcia in the final. This week has seen Sabalenka defeat Tereza Martincova and Shelby Rogers, both in straight sets making it five consecutive wins by straight sets. Only nine games have been lost by Sabalenka in her first two matches of this Australian Open.

Elise Mertens is up to 30th in the live rankings, two places higher than in the last list published. A win over Sabalenka can take her up to 27th. The Belgian is a former semi-finalist in this tournament (doing so in 2018) and has lost in the fourth round in each of the last three years. Doing so in 2023 is going to be a tough task as Mertens has a poor record against her opponent. Sabalenka leads her 6-2 in previous meetings with the last four lost and three seeing her lose in straight sets. It's not been the best of starts to the year for Mertens with two losses in the United Cup, one to a player ranked outside the top 300. Her only singles warm-up tournament saw her beaten in her first match. This week has gone a bit better for her though with wins over Garbine Muguruza (after losing the first set) and Lauren Davis. Sabalenka looks in by far the better form and can win this in straight sets.