Tennis
2026-01-24 - Naomi Osaka vs Maddison Inglis
A Sports Betting Pick by FirstDown
Tennis : Australian Open Third Round
Saturday 24th January 2025 - Scheduled 9:30pm
10:30am (British Time)
Preview
This is not the first time that Australian Maddison Inglis has made it through to the Third Round of her home Grand Slam, but in 2022 she was awarded a Wild Card into the tournament.
Four years later, Maddison Inglis entered the Qualifying Rounds for the Australian Open, as has been the case in each of the last three seasons.
The last couple of years have ended in the final Round of Qualifying, but Inglis battled through to the main draw at this event and has continued to dig in to earn another run to the Third Round. This is going to help improve the World Ranking, which currently sits at Number 168, and the Australian has already beaten four players Ranked higher than herself to reach the Third Round.
However, none of the wins have been against anyone Ranked higher than Number 48 and this time Maddison Inglis is taking on a two time former Champion of this event.
Naomi Osaka has not been at her best in the first couple of Rounds, but she has found a way to move through the draw and that is an improvement on some of the early results she had when returning to the Tour. There is certainly more belief within the World Number 17, although Osaka may have to have found a way to ignore the criticisms that have been aimed at her for some of the on-court behaviour in the win over Sorana Cirstea.
She has apologised for what some believed to be gamesmanship and the challenge for Naomi Osaka is remaining focused and not worrying too much about what others may think.
This challenge only increases considering this is likely to be a match played in an atmosphere where the home player is going to be loudly backed by the crowd.
If she can lock in, Naomi Osaka should have too much for an opponent who had a career 1-11 record against top 50 Ranked opponents on the hard courts before beating Laura Siegemund in the Second Round.
In eight of those eleven defeats, Maddison Inglis would not have won enough games to get within the spread set for this Third Round match.
Naomi Osaka does need to improve if she is going to have a serious impact at the business end of this tournament, but her current level is expected to be too much for the Australian.
Over the last twelve months, Osaka has won six of seven hard court matches played against opponents Ranked outside the top 100 and four of those would have seen her cover the spread like this one.
The reality is that Naomi Osaka's level should be too much for a veteran in Maddison Inglis who will be well supported, but who has to find a number of gears to remain competitive.
Prediction
Lay the games with the former two time Australian Open Champion against a home Qualifier who has surpassed all expectations.
The Pick :
Naomi Osaka 2-0 Maddison Inglis
