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| Match: Finished | 1 | 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Z. Hives (AUS) | 3 | 3 |
| C. Garcia (FRA) [19] | 6 | 6 |
| Completed Sets | ||
|---|---|---|
| Set won by C. Garcia | 3 - 6 | C. Garcia leads 0 to 2 |
| Set won by C. Garcia | 3 - 6 | C. Garcia leads 0 to 1 |
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Wildcard Zoe Hives will be gunning to be the first Australian to make it through to the third round at Melbourne Park when she takes on French 19th seed Caroline Garcia. Join The Roar for live scores and play-by-play updates from 11am (AEDT).
22-year-old Hives could hardly have made a better start to her grand slam career, crushing experienced American Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-1, 6-2 to cruise into the round of 64.
Currently ranked outside the world’s top 200, the Ballarat-born rising star has bided her time on the ITF circuit early in her career, winning tournaments in Playford, Toowoomba and Canberra in 2018 before earning a wildcard entry into the year’s first Grand Slam.
She’s got plenty to thank her parents for as she rises up the tennis ladder- keen tennis players themselves, they built a granite court on their cattle property to encourage their daughter, with mum Jan spending many an hour practising with her.
All that hard work has certainly paid off, but things only get harder from here- opponent Garcia is a fearsome foe with a powerful game at her disposal.
After reaching the fourth round at last year’s Australian Open as the eighth seed, the Frenchwoman reached as high as world No.4 in September after defeating another Aussie in Ashleigh Barty in the Wuhan Open final, but despite also taking out tournaments in China and Tianjin, her ranking would slip heading into the year’s first Grand Slam.
Nevertheless, she is one of the more aggressive women’s tennis players going around, with a fearsome forehand and a lethal first serve, and Hives will have her work cut out for her to keep those weapons from proving decisive.
Prediction
Hives enjoyed an upset victory in the first round, but this presents a much tougher challenge – 25-year old Garcia is in superb form and has the game to really dominate the Aussie. Expect Hives to put up a big fight, but the 19th seed to be too good in the long run.
Garcia in straight sets.
Tune into The Roar’s live coverage of this Australian Open second-round clash from 11am (AEDT) and be sure to leave us your thoughts in the comments section below.
Start time: 11am (AEDT)
Venue: 1573 Arena
Streaming: 9Now
Betting: Garcia $1.20, Hives $4.50
Overall Record: Never Played
Caroline Garcia last 10 matches: won 7, lost 3
Zoe Hives last 10 matches: won 7, lost 3
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