Fourth-seeded Stan Wawrinka kicks off round three at Melbourne Park against 29th seed Viktor Troicki of Serbia. Join The Roar for live scores from 2:30pm (AEDT).
The 31-year-old Swiss had a gruelling opening round encounter against Martin Klizan of Slovakia, the match going to five sets on Margaret Court Arena, pushing Wawrinka to his limits.
Wawrinka’s second-round match with Steve Johnson allowed him to find his rhythm, winning comfortably in straight sets.
On the other hand, Troicki, currently ranked No.35 in the world has endured a gruelling Australian Open journey thus far.
Two five-set marathons against Damir Dzumhur to open his campaign followed by a victory against Paulo Lorenzi of Italy in the second round.
Wawrinka, the 2014 Australian Open champion had a solid showing at the Brisbane International to begin the new year before falling sort to Kei Nishikori in the semi-fnals.
Meanwhile, the 30-year-old Troicki fell short to Wawrinka just recently in the Brisbane International before cruising to the semi-finals of the Apia International Sydney eventually losing to Gilles Mueller of Luxembourg.
This winner of this match-up will likely progress to face Andreas Seppi of Italy in the fourth round.
In the head-to-head count, Troicki is yet to defeat Wawrinka on seven occasions with there most recent meeting just two weeks ago in Brisbane.
Troicki is surprisingly the last Serbian standing in the men’s draw after countryman Novak Djokovic’s shock exit in the second round.
Prediction
Stan seemed to have played himself into some form after a first round scare. With a victory over Troicki in Brisbane, Wawrinka will go in with all the confidence and should win comfortably on Rod Laver Arena.
Wawrinka in 3 sets.
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