The women’s singles matches at the 2025 Australian Open will begin on Sunday, January 12 and be played over three days as some of the top players like Paula Badosa and Anastasia Potapova take to court for their openers. Here’s the preview, predictions and tips for these matches from Melbourne.
- Get all the remaining tennis betting tips and predictions of the day here
- Also read what’s a Tennis Betting Accumulator here
Paula Badosa v Xinyu Wang Preview
Head-to-Head: Badosa and Wang have never faced off in a competitive match before this.
Former world number two Paula Badosa entered the season on the back of some good results last year which included a title win in Washington but things haven’t quite gone to play at the start of this season.
She has participated in both the weeks of tennis that was possible, featuring in the Brisbane International and Adelaide International but won just one match in total.
Following a three-set loss in her Brisbane opener to Elina Avanesyan, Badosa was then bundled out in the second round in Adelaide by Ashlyn Krueger with only a hard-fought, three-set win over Peyton Stearns to show for her efforts.
While her form has been scratchy to begin with, Xinyu has been struggling for a while and another month or so of such results could see her ranking plummet from her current 37th to outside the top 50 or worse.
She also featured in both Brisbane and Adelaide to kick-start the season and lost in the first round at both.
The Chinese player has never made it past the second round at the Australian Open and given her form it’s unlikely she’s going to change that around here.
Badosa v Wang prediction: Badosa to win in three sets: 7/2
Nuria Parrizas Diaz v Iva Jovic Preview
Head-to-Head: Parrizas Diaz and Jovic have never faced off in a competitive match before this.
Once ranked in the top 50 on the WTA charts, Nuria Parrizas Diaz has fallen out of the top 100 and it was only by the dint of some good fortune she has been able to make it to this season-opening major without having to go through the qualifiers.
Parrizas Diaz did have a good outing at the Canberra WTA 125 competition at the start of the year where she made the semifinal and she followed that up by qualifying for the Hobart International.
She was no match for Elise Mertens in that opener there.
The good news for Parrizas Diaz is she has avoided facing a seeded player here and will be up against Iva Jovic, who is herself ranked 191st in the world and was awarded a wildcard to feature in this tournament.
All of 17 years of age, Jovic had made her Grand Slam debut last year at the US Open, also as a wildcard and then stunned Magda Linette in her opener and that’s something Parrizas Diaz will do well to remember.
We could see a fighting tussle with Jovic having a solid shot of making the second round.
Parrizas Diaz v Jovic prediction: Jovic to win: 9/11
Lulu Sun v Danka Kovinic Preview
Head-to-Head: Sun and Kovinic will be facing off the first time.
Lulu Sun had ended the 2023 season ranked outside the top 200 for the third consecutive year but things changed around drastically for her in 2024.
Other than winning two ITF titles, the Kiwi player made the second round at the Auckland Open and then showed her true mettle at Wimbledon where starting out as a qualifier, she went all the way through to the quarterfinals.
Wins over Qinwen Zheng and Emma Raducanu helped her achieve a career-best ranking of 39th in the world.
While she hasn’t started 2025 on a positive note, losing at both her openers in Auckland and Hobart, Sun will know she has a good chance against Danka Kovinic who is making a comeback to competitive tennis.
Kovinic has fallen to outside the top 1200 on the rankings but gets an entry into the competition under the Protected Rankings rule. After having ended her season at the 2023 US Open, Kovinic returned to competitive tennis only in July 2024 and even after that played in only four ITF competitions.
She participated in Canberra to kick-start her season in 2025 but lost the opener and unless she can do something drastic, it looks highly likely, Kovinic would find it tough to get past round one here as well.
Sun v Kovinic prediction: Sun to win in straight sets: 1/10
Anastasia Potapova v Tamara Zidansek Preview
Head-to-Head: There have been three previous meetings between these two at the highest level with Potapova leading 2-1. On outdoor hardcourt, it’s 1-1 with both matches, in Monterrey and Monastir, going to a third set.
Anastasia Potapova has been able to maintain her rankings in the top 40 over the last few seasons while hitting a peak of 21st in the world.
And she has had a decent start to the season too, having featured in Brisbane and reached the third round there.
Wins over Ana Bogdan and Dayana Yastremska would have kept her in a good stead and while she would have been disappointed at losing to 6/4 underdog Kimberly Birrell in the third, Potapova will kick-start the Australian Open in a decent frame of mind.
Interestingly, Potapova has won just one match at the Australian Open over the past three seasons.
Her opponent in this opener, Tamara Zidansek has been around for a while, having seen a career-best of ranking of 22nd before falling to her current 180th. The decline has been steady and surprising.
That’s because as recently as in February 2022 Zidansek had hit her career-high ranking following a semifinal appearance at the French Open the previous year.
As a result she was forced to feature in the qualifiers here and came through but now faces a far greater test than that.
Potapova v Zidansek prediction: Potapova to win: 1/3
Other Australian Open 2025 Predictions of the Day
- TBA
