Australian Open Best Bets, Day 3: Ride youth—Gauff, Yastremska, Sinner

All figures from DraftKings Sportsbook.

When this opened, Gauff was a slight, -140 favorite over Cirstea. The line is now -186, and by the time you read this, it will probably stretch even farther in favor of the American. Placing any amount of money on a 15-year-old comes with inherent risk, but Gauff showed tremendous poise in her second-straight Grand Slam main-draw victory over Venus Williams. It couldn’t have been easy to dismiss a future Hall of Famer on such a big stage, but Gauff is simply a much better player. Her speed kills, and she doesn’t beat herself. Her athleticism forces opponents to aim for smaller targets and her serve is already top-notch. A Cirstea victory would come as a major surprise.

Yastremska kicked off her 2020 Australian Open campaign with a 6-1, 6-1 thumping of Slovenia’s Kaja Juvan. She is a legitimate dark-horse contender and one of the hottest players in the world by any metric. According to her three-month trending UTR, she rates as the 11th best player in the world. Armed with new coach Sascha Bajin, it appears Yastremska is headed straight for the top even quicker than expected. Wozniacki, meanwhile, is retiring at the end of this tournament. Some opponents might show the Dane a smidge of mercy in her farewell, and she won her first-rounder over Kristie Ahn with ease. But Yastremska will show the Dane no compassion—only during their post-match embrace.

Marton Fucsovics pulled off the upset of the tournament thus far in his four-set victory over the red-hot Denis Shapovalov. But don’t read too much into the Hungarian’s victory, as Shapovalov had a nightmarish opening-round performance. The Canadian’s body language and attitude was not fit for Grand Slam competition.

Fucsovics is as fit as they come, which could pose an issue for the slight-of-frame Italian. After falling down 5-3 in the first set in his first-round match against Australian Max Purcell, Sinner dug deep and showed why he rates as the current 30th best player in the world—without playing a full ATP calendar season in 2019. Pros and analysts alike have dubbed the carrot-loving Sinner a future great. It’s not possible to teach someone to strike the ball like him. His cleanliness from the ground is God-given, and he should have no problem finding his range against the rock-solid, but not overpowering, Fucsovics.