This article is part of our Tennis Picks series.
The second round of the Australian Open continues Thursday from the hard courts of Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia, with the action starting Wednesday night in the United States. A former big name on the WTA Tour will try to show she still has something left in the tank as an underdog, while one of the top ATP Tour performers to begin 2026 attempts to keep rolling against a clay-court specialist.
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All men's singles matches at Grand Slams such as the Australian Open are best of five sets, while women's singles matches are best of three sets. A mix of players' previous hard court results, recent form and stylistic matchups can help pinpoint intriguing betting opportunities, both among favorites likely to cruise to victory and underdogs ready to pull off upsets. The aforementioned underdogs are highlighted in the Upset Alert section, the Lock It In section covers players who can safely be viewed as favorites, while the Value Bets section recommends enticing options in matchups that are considered closer to toss-ups.
Australian Open Tennis Picks: Upset Alert
Jaume Munar (+210) vs. Casper Ruud
Munar was a tough out at Grand Slam events in 2025, notching five top-60 wins and pushing two top-15 players to a fifth set, including a five-set loss to Ruud in the first round of last year's Australian Open. The 39th-ranked Spaniard has gone toe-to-toe with Ruud in all three of their hard-court meetings, as Munar won one, lost once in five sets and lost again in a deciding-set tiebreak. Ruud has had his fair share of struggles in this round specifically, going 4-7 in his last 11 Grand Slam second-round matches since the start of 2023.
Karolina Pliskova (+229) vs. Janice Tjen
Pliskova is past her prime at age 33, but the former world No. 1 can still put pressure on opponents with a big first serve and aggressive returns. She won 71 percent of second-serve return points in her first-round match against Sloane Stephens, and Pliskova's certainly more dangerous than her current ranking of 1,057 suggests. Tjen closed out 2025 on a hot streak to get the 23-year-old Indonesian into the top 60, but she started 0-2 in 2026 prior to beating Leylah Fernandez in the first round in a far different stylistic matchup. Nerves could be a factor for Tjen as the favorite to advance to the first Grand Slam third round of her career.
Honorable Mention
Julia Grabher (+551) vs. Anna Kalinskaya
Australian Open Tennis Odds: Lock It In
Sebastian Baez (-193) vs. Luciano Darderi
Baez is playing as well as anybody to begin 2026, with an 8-1 record that includes a pair of top-10 wins. After outlasting big-serving Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in the first round, the battle-tested Baez will look to keep rolling against the 25th-ranked Darderi, whose 11-spote edge in rankings is due to clay-court success. Darderi's 42-20 on clay in his career but just 10-29 on hard courts. Baez leads their head-to-head 4-2, and their only hard-court encounter was a four-set Baez win on the Grand Slam stage at the 2024 U.S. Open.
Jakub Mensik (-190) vs. Rafael Jodar
Mensik has all the physical tools to be a top-10 staple for a decade, but the 20-year-old Czech has previously been held back at Grand Slam events by deficiencies in mental discipline and fitness, with six of his last seven losses at majors coming after he held a 2-1 lead in sets. The 2025 Miami Open champion demonstrated improvement in those areas in his five-set first-round win over Pablo Carreno Busta, as it was Mensik's turn to come back from two sets to one down. Carreno Busta's a tough out even at age 34, as the rock-solid Spaniard is a former top-10 player and Australian Open semifinalist, but his compatriot Jodar is much less accomplished, as this is the 19-year-old Jodar's Grand Slam main draw debut. The 150th-ranked Jodar capitalized on a favorable first-round draw, outlasting 203rd-ranked Rei Sakamoto in five sets, but the 16th-seeded Mensik presents a far stiffer challenge for the Spanish teenager, who has faced only one top-100 opponent in his career.
Honorable Mention
Karen Khachanov (-273) vs. Nishesh Basavareddy
Australian Open Tennis Predictions: Value Bets
Stefanos Tsitsipas (+146) vs. Tomas Machac
Tsitsipas has a pattern throughout his career of excelling in the first two Grand Slams and fading in the last two, with a 52-17 combined record at the Australian Open and French Open compared to a 16-16 mark at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. The former top-10 staple is coming off a disappointing 2025 campaign that dropped his ranking to 35th, but Tsitsipas is young enough to turn things around at age 27, and the three-time Australian Open semifinalist is a nice value as a slight underdog against the 24th-ranked Machac, who has a pedestrian 17-15 career record at Grand Slams. Despite Machac's edge in the rankings, Tsitsipas has the far higher ceiling and could benefit from the reduced pressure of being unseeded.
Jelena Ostapenko (+120) vs. Xinyu Wang
Ostapenko generally controls her matches with aggressive court positioning and big ground strokes, which leaves the No. 24 seed vulnerable to being upset early but also capable of beating anyone, as evidenced by her 6-0 career record against Iga Swiatek. As a slight underdog in this match, Ostapenko's risk of a letdown is already priced in, and her 5-1 record in Australian Open second-round matches suggests she's usually capable of winning multiple amtches if her timing is good enough to get out of the first round. The 46th-ranked wang has never been past the second round of the Australian Open, with just a 3-5 record at this tournament in her career.
Honorable Mention
Laura Siegemund (-153) vs. Maddison Inglis
