Before each day of play at the Australian Open, we'll preview and predict three must-see matches. For full coverage of the season's first Slam, go to our men’s and women’s tournament pages.
Court 3 will host an intriguing, and potentially lengthy, second-rounder early in the day. Berdych and Harrison have played once—last summer—and Berdych came through in a close one, 6-4 in the third. But the defeat was still a positive for the American; after years of laboring on the Challenger circuit, he signaled that he might be ready to play with the big boys. A few weeks later, Harrison did it again when he ground out an upset of Milos Raonic at the U.S. Open, and he recorded a solid straight-set win over Nicolas Mahut on Monday in Melbourne. But the bigger-hitting Berdych, who is looking forward to a third-round encounter against Roger Federer, will be favored again.
Winner: Berdych
The Cold War ... of topspin forehands. The 24-year-old American and the 20-year-old Russian are poster children for the modern baseline power game, and the polyester-string revolution that brought it to us. Both swing out and rely on the rotations they get on the ball to bring it into the court. And they both seem ready to go places in 2017. Sock and Khachanov have never played, but in the spirit of Clubber Lang, I have a pretty good idea of what the ball will be feeling during this second-round shootout on little Court 8: Pain.
Winner: Sock
The top seed on the men’s side closes the night session in Rod Laver Arena with a second-round match against a talented but temperamental 19-year-old Russian. The rail-thin Rublev is part of the ATP’s NextGen cohort, but so far he hasn’t had nearly the success of his mop-top doppelgãnger, Alexander Zverev. Rublev is still raw and emotional, but he’s a shot-maker. And Murray doesn’t believe he’s really playing until he makes a match hard on himself. So there should be competitive moments in this one. But Murray hasn’t lost before the quarterfinals in Melbourne since 2009.