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Australia’s women’s doubles hopes are at odds as Daria Gavrilova and Samantha Stosur prepare to go head-to-head with Swiss powerhouse duo Martina Hingis and Timea Bacsinszky. Join The Roar from around 6am (AEST) for live coverage.
The Australian and Swiss teams may not have much experience playing together in 2016 but that shouldn’t stop them putting on a wonderful show to kick off the women’s doubles at Rio.
Australia’s two top female tennis players Daria Gavrilova and Samantha Stosur played together at the recent Rogers Cup making their way through to the quarter-finals.
The pair began their journey as wildcard entrants with a win over Chuang Chia-jung and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 4-6, 6-3, 10-8.
They then pulled out an impressive performance against Czech duo Karolina Pliskova and Barbora Strycova to win 6-3, 3-6, 10-5 before meeting Russian fourth seeds Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina.
They went down to the Russians in straight sets 6-7, 0-6 with the team going on to defeat Romania’s Simona Halep and Monica Niculescu in the final.
They will go into this match as underdogs, however, they will be benefited by the camaraderie that has been built up on the WTA Tour over the past few years.
World No.1 women’s doubles player Martina Hingis will make her first Olympic appearance in 20 years after she reached the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles with Patty Schnyder at Atlanta in 1996.
It will likely be her last shot at Olympic gold as she links up with Timea Bacsinszky, who previously competed at Beijing in 2008 when she took part in the singles draw.
The pair have not played together in 2016 which will prove a major challenge, however, with the brilliance of Hingis and her dominance in doubles tennis they should prove to be an unstoppable force for the Australians.
The winner will face off against either Spain’s Anabel Medina Garrigues and Arantxa Parra Santonja, or Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Coco Vandeweghe of the United States of America.
Prediction
Hingis and Bacsinszky will take a while to find their groove but after they do, the Swiss duo will be hard to stop and move into the second round.
Switzerland in three sets.
Join The Roar from around 6am (AEST) for live coverage following the completion of Bosnian Damir Dzumhur and Israeli Dudi Sela.
Be sure to drop a comment in the box below if you’re watching the match.
You can find Riley on Twitter @rileypettigrew.