The 2020 Australian Open begins on Monday from Melbourne. Even though wildfires have been the dominant subject of discussion, the competition is expected to go on as scheduled. Now that the draws have come out, there is always the possibility of upsets.
Two unseeded players on the men’s side have a very good chance of knocking out their seeded opponents. In fact, I am picking Kyle Edmund of Great Britain to beat 24th ranked Dusan Lajovic of Serbia and Sam Querrey of the United States to beat the 28th ranked Borna Coric of Serbia.
Edmund reached the semifinal of the 2018 Australian Open before losing in straight sets to 2014 United States Open champion Marin Cilic of Croatia. Edmund also reached the third round of the Paris Masters in the fall and was able to reach the quarterfinals of the 2020 ASB Classic in Auckland after impressive wins over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain and Andreas Seppi of Italy.
Like Edmund, Querrey has reached the semifinals of a major. He got to the final four of Wimbledon in 2017 before also losing to Cilic. In 2019, Querrey’s best grand slam result was once again at Wimbledon as he reached the quarterfinals. In Adelaide last week, Querrey reached the second round where he lost to Russian rising star Andrey Rublev.
Head to head, Edmund has a record of two wins and zero losses against Lajovic. Edmund’s first win came in the quarterfinals of the 2016 Davis Cup, as he won 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 in Belgrade. Edmund then beat Lajovic in the quarterfinals of Beijing in 2018 by a score of 6-3, 7-6. Coric does have a win against Querrey, but that came five years ago on Querrey’s worst surface, which is clay.
There is no doubt that Coric and Lajovic are rising stars in their own right on the ATP Tour. Coric has tournament titles in Morocco and Germany and Lajovic won the 2019 Croatian Open. I just like the experience that Edmund and Querrey bring more.
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S Querry – $2.15 With PlayUp
K Edmund – $1.50 With PlayUp
