A lot has changed since Japan’s Naomi Osaka first won the Australian Open, specifically her ranking, which dropped all the way to 13th at the end of 2021 after she peaked as the No. 1 women’s singles player in the world back in 2019. Osaka won her second Australian Open title a year ago as the No. 3 seed before citing mental health issues in taking a hiatus from the sport, and now she is back at Melbourne Park as the +550 second choice (bet $100 to win $550) to repeat at BetOnline, sitting behind only the favorite Ashleigh Barty (+265). Action gets underway on Monday.
Osaka’s inactivity is one reason why she is not favored as the defending champion, but the Aussie Barty’s rise to the top seed and her No. 1 ranking status has been very impressive as well. While Barty is still searching for the first Grand Slam title in her homeland after getting upset as the top seed in last year’s quarterfinals, she later won Wimbledon in 2021 and looks poised to add an Australian Open singles championship to her trophy collection later this month.
Top Seed Barty Has Advantage in Top-Half of Draw
As the top seed in Melbourne, Barty definitely has an advantage in the top half of the draw, although she could meet Osaka as the No. 13 in the fourth round assuming both players make it that far. The good news for them is that second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka (+1600) and third-seeded Garbine Muguruza (+900) each reside in the bottom half of the draw along with a few of the other top players on the betting board in seventh-seeded Iga Swiatek (+900), sixth-seeded Anett Kontaveit (+1200) and 14th-seeded Simona Halep (+1200).
Sabalenka’s best finish in the Australian Open is the fourth round, which was accomplished in 2021. She has yet to break through with a Grand Slam title, and that might be why she has the longest odds of that group. Muguruza made it to the 2020 Australian Open women’s singles final, where she lost to Sofia Kenin. The 28-year-old Spaniard has previously won the French Open (2016) and Wimbledon (2017).
Swiatek has made it to the fourth round of the Australian Open in each of the previous two years, with Kontaveit knocking her out in 2020 before falling to Halep in the quarterfinals for her best finish. Halep lost the final to Carolina Wozniacki in 2018 and fell to Muguruza in the 2020 semifinals.
