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Bernard Tomic vs Victor Estrella Burgos: Australian Open tennis live scores, blog

18th January, 2017
Start time: Around 8:30pm (AEDT)
Venue: Margaret Court Arena, Melbourne Park
TV: Live, Network Seven
Online: 7 Tennis App
Betting: Tomic $1.21, Burgos $6.45
Overall Record: Played 2, Tomic 1, Burgos 1
Last played: Bogota semi-final 2014, Tomic defeat Burgos 7-6, 6-7, 7-6

Bernard Tomic last 10 matches: won 3, lost 7
Victor Estrella Burgos last 10 matches: won 4, lost 6
Bernard Tomic has missed out on qualifying for the Australian Open. (AAP Image/Mark Dadswell)
Expert
18th January, 2017
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3953 Reads

Bernard Tomic will be looking to get on and off the court as quickly as possible in the second round of the Australian Open when he takes on world no.103 Victor Estrella Burgos. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from around 8:30pm (AEDT).

Tomic got his campaign off to a blistering start on Monday in the first round when he got the better of clay court specialist Thomaz Belluci.

It was the least amount of games Tomic has ever conceded in a grand slam match, as he picked up a dominating 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 victory over the world no.62.

After some disappointing form coming into the first grand slam of the year, it was an impressive performance from Tomic who was able to play at his peak for the entire hour and a half, never dropping away from his gameplan due to fitness issues.

With a good percentage of first serves in and a powerful groundstroke game, aided by being able to read the play like we haven’t often seen from the Australian, he was never going to be beaten.

For Estrella Burgos, his passage through the first round was a lot tougher as he spent over three hours on the court in a four-set victory over Alijaz Bedene.

After winning the first in a tense tie-breaker, he took the second 7-5, showing his ability to remain calm under the pump, but simply put the quality of tennis wasn’t all that good.

Bedene finally hit his straps during the third set, sending Burgos to the bottom with a 6-0 result before the 36-year-old veteran got back ahead and won the fourth set 6-3.

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While Burgos doesn’t have a big serve or any major weapon in his game, he is generally pretty consistent and gets a lot of balls back into the court, which doesn’t play into Tomic’s skill set well given he will try to blast his opponent off the court, attacking the net and playing from within the baseline as much as possible.

The pair have played twice previously, however with both meetings coming in 2014, the form guide is a little irrelevant. Nonetheless, the meetings were split at one apiece with Tomic winning the last on hard court in a quarter-final.

The winner of this match will take on either Daniel Evans or seventh seed Marin Cilic.

Prediction
The only way Tomic should lose this is if he beats himself. If he plays like he did during the first round, with a positive mindset and plenty of power, he will be on and off the court in two hours.

Tomic in straight sets.

Be sure to join The Roar for live scores and coverage of this second round match from around 8:30pm (AEDT) of at the completion of Shelby Rogers vs Ashleigh Barty and don’t forget to add a comment in the section below.

Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde

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