Three to See, AO Day 3: Djokovic-Tiafoe, Osaka-Garcia, Andreescu-Hsieh

Before each day's play at the 2021 Australian Open, we'll preview three must-see matches.

Osaka will face her second straight quality opponent on Wednesday. In her opener, she met Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova’s power with her own power, and a lot more consistency. Against Garcia, she’ll be playing someone with more polish and variety, but chances are Osaka won’t change her tactics. She’ll do what she always does, which is try to dictate the rallies from the get-go with her serve and return, and end the rallies as quickly as possible with a winner off the ground. Garcia, a former world No. 4, is skilled and experienced enough to cause Osaka problems, but she might not believe she can finish the job.

Winner: Osaka

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Here comes another career opportunity for 23-year-old Tiafoe. In 2019, he reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, where he lost a lopsided affair to Rafael Nadal. Two years later, Tiafoe’s ranking has sunk from the 30s down to the 60s, but he has a strong coach in Wayne Ferreira, and a new determination to prove himself at the highest level. He’ll get that chance in a big way on Wednesday, when he plays Djokovic for the first time, on the Serbian’s favorite court. Tiafoe may want a test, but chances are he’ll end up leaving Melbourne with another reality check.

Winner: Djokovic

You remember Andreescu, right? Before her first-round win on Monday, the 2019 US Open champion hadn’t played a match in over 15 months. Now the Canadian is back and she’s no longer a teenager (she’s 20, to be exact) and she’s hopefully healthy again for the long haul. On Wednesday, Andreescu will put her highly varied game up against the even more diversified game style of Hsieh, in a match that should remind everyone how many different ways there are to hit a tennis ball. Andreescu, who can also simply hit the ball hard, won their only meeting in straight sets in Auckland two years ago.

Winner: Andreescu