Each day during the Australian Open, Steve Tignor will look ahead to three of the most compelling matches in each draw.*

*

Thursday's showcase match has ended up on Margaret Court Arena at night, a fact that generated so much outrage in my Twitter feed last night that I thought the scandal might begin to trend worldwide. I can understand the disappointment, but I can also understand how Sam Stosur’s match would be in Rod Laver instead. And while MCA isn’t the bigger court, it is the better one for spectators.

Those spectators will get an early-round treat from this match, which, by the end of 2015, could be a Grand Slam final. Both women are former No. 1s, and in completed head-head matches, they’re 3-3 (technically, Wozniacki leads 4-3). Azarenka is a two-time champ here, but Wozniacki is farther along in her rebuilding process. Winner: Wozniacki

The night time is the right time for this trip through the tennis looking glass. The Pole and the Frenchman are towering athletes who are as gifted in self-sabotage as they are in shot-making. A match featuring one of them is unpredictable enough; put them together and you can only expect the unexpected. Monfils won their sole meeting, in fairly quiet fashion it seems, 6-3, 6-4 last year in Metz. Gael probably won’t settle for anything that dull in Hisense tonight. Winner: Monfils

These two faced each other in the 2010 Wimbledon final—it seems so long ago, doesn't it? Can you guess who won? But while Serena has the upper hand in their head-to-head, she hasn't always dominated. Zvonareva has won three of their 10 matches, and two of five on hard courts. The Russian is 31 now and, after some time away, ranked No. 203. But this isn’t your everyday second-round match, and Serena won’t treat it that way. Winner: S. Williams

On the surface, this appears to be blowout city. Raonic is in the Top 10 and is a legitimate threat to win the tournament; Young is ranked 56th, he gives up six inches on Raonic, and has no weapons that can remotely compete with the Canadian’s serve. Yet the last time they played, indoors in Basel last fall, Young took it to a final-set tiebreaker before succumbing. Winner: Raonic

The new Keys-Davenport team moves into its second round, and up a step in class. The Aussie and the American, ranked 29 and 35 respectively, should be evenly matched. Winner: Keys

It will be tension time in Rod Laver Arena tonight, as Stosur tries once again to shake her home-country nerves. Vandeweghe may not be the best opponent for that. The big-serving American has improved over the last year, and her improvement included a three-set win over Stosur in Miami last March. Still, she’ll be nervous for a night match, too. Winner: Vandeweghe

Honorable Mention: Venus Williams vs. Lauren Davis. Here we have the long and the short of it. Venus is 6’1”, Davis is 5’2”. They’ve played once, two weeks ago in Auckland, and Venus won easily. Can it be as easy this time?