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Karolina Pliskova and Ekaterina Makarova will meet at the Australian Open in what looks to be an incredibly close match. Join The Roar for live scores from 11am (AEDT).
Ninth seed Pliskova has won seven of her last ten matches and will be hoping to improve on that figure by accounting for Makarova and going through to the fourth round.
The Czech has never previously gone past the third round of a grand slam, however, she looks in good shape to do so this year after a good start to 2016.
Pliskova began 2016 at the Sydney International where she managed to defeat world No.23 Ana Ivanovic in straight sets 6-4, 6-2.
She then went on to stun Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-3, 6-0 before falling at the hands of world No.2 Simona Halep in the quarter-finals 4-6, 5-7.
She began her Australian Open campaign against Australian young gun Kimberly Birrell and was victorious in straight sets winning 6-4, 6-4.
After cruising through to the second round, Pliskova faced Julia Goerges who she fought against in the first set before easily accounting for her in the second to win 7-6, 6-1.
A win would put Pliskova in a good position to go deep into the Australian Open as either Madison Keys or Ana Ivanovic will soon be the only seed remaining in her quarter of the draw. She’ll likely face one of them in the quarter-finals, if she can win her way through the next two rounds.
Seeded 21st, Makarova has had a decent start to 2016 and will be hoping she can go further with a win over Pliskova.
Makarova rung in the new year at Brisbane where she got off to a rocky start defeating Margarita Gasparyan in the first round before falling to Andrea Petkovic in the second. It was her first time on court since September 2015.
She came to Sydney having some court time under her belt and managed to push through to the quarter-finals defeating Lucie Hradecka and Angelique Kerber (after the German retired) on her way to a meeting with Belinda Bencic which she lost in three sets 0-6, 6-2, 4-6.
Makarova arrived in Melbourne and sent Australian Maddison Inglis out of the tournament in straight sets 6-3, 6-0 during the first round, before then defeating Tatjana Maria in the second round.
She now faces arguably her toughest opposition yet in 2016 and will be needing to play to her very best if she is to be any chance of going deeper into the first grand slam of the year.
The pair did battle during the third round of the 2015 Australian Open in which Makarova won in straight sets 6-4, 6-4. It was one of two meetings between the two, the other coming at the final in Pattaya City back in 2014 with Makarova again winning in straight sets 6-3, 7-6.
Either Johanna Konta or Denisa Allertova will tackle the winner in the fourth round.
Prediction
Expect the match to be incredibly tight with plenty of tiebreakers. It looks fairly even on paper and could be decided by the toss of the coin. Pliskova has the slight advantage and will move through to the fourth round.
Pliskova in three sets.
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