World No. 3 Coco Gauff cruised through the first two rounds of the Australian Open, and she now has a matchup with fellow American Hailey Baptiste in the third round on Thursday night.<\/p>\n
Gauff is a massive favorite in this match, as she\u2019s looking to get back to the fourth round at Melbourne Park for the fourth year in a row.<\/p>\n
Baptiste needed three sets to advance out of the first round, but she dominated Storm Hunter in the second round (6-2, 6-1) to make her first-ever third-round appearance at the Australian Open.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These two Americans have met one time in their careers \u2013 back in 2023 in Washington, D.C. \u2013 and Gauff won that matchup very easily.<\/p>\n
Will that be the case for the reigning French Open winner tonight?<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s dive into the odds, each player\u2019s path to the third round and my prediction for this match.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Coco Gauff vs. Hailey Baptiste Odds and Total<\/p>\n
Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook<\/a><\/p>\n Moneyline<\/p>\n Coco Gauff: -1420Hailey Baptiste: +900<\/p>\n Total<\/p>\n 18.5 (Over -115\/Under -130)Coco Gauff vs. Hailey Baptiste How to WatchDate: Thursday, Jan. 22Time: 10:00 p.m. ESTHow to Watch (TV): ESPN2Coco Gauff vs. Hailey Baptiste History and Tournament So FarCoco Gauff<\/p>\n Gauff has back-to-back strong showings at Melbourne Park, reaching the quarterfinals in 2025 and the semifinals in 2024. Now, she looks poised to make another deep run after dominated her first two matches:\u00a0<\/p>\n vs. Kamilla Rakhimova: 6-2, 6-3vs. Olga Danilovi\u0107: 6-2, 6-2<\/p>\n In her lone matchup against Baptiste back in 2023, Gauff won 6-1, 6-4 on a hard court. There\u2019s no doubt that she should be a major favorite in this match.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hailey Baptiste<\/p>\n Baptiste is having one of her best showings at a Grand Slam in her career. She beat American Taylor Townsend in the first round in three sets before dominating Storm Hunter in Round 2.\u00a0<\/p>\n This is a tough matchup for Baptiste, as she\u2019s only made the third round of a Grand Slam twice in her career and is now facing one of the best players in the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n Coco Gauff vs. Hailey Baptiste Prediction and Pick<\/p>\n So far in the 2026 Australian Open, Gauff has needed just 17 and 16 games to advance in her matches, and she only needed 17 games to down Baptiste in their lone meeting back in 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n With that in mind, I love the UNDER in total games in this matchup with Gauff set as a gigantic favorite.<\/p>\n The American appears to have shaken off a rough finish at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open last year to find her peak form, and I think she\u2019ll be able to make quick work of Baptiste, who simply doesn\u2019t have a ton of experience this far into a Grand Slam.<\/p>\n Gauff has made the fourth round or better in four of her six appearances at Melbourne Park, and I think she adds to that total in dominant fashion on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n Pick: UNDER 18.5 Games (-130 at DraftKings)<\/a><\/p>\n Odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.<\/p>\n If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-GAMBLER.<\/p>\n Claim the latest\u00a0DraftKings promo code<\/a>\u00a0offer today. Sign up and win your first $5 bet to get\u00a0$300 in bonus bets instantly.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World No. 3 Coco Gauff cruised through the first two rounds of the Australian Open, and she now…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-422989","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}