{"id":96363,"date":"2026-01-21T06:00:42","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T11:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=96363"},"modified":"2026-01-21T00:17:52","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T05:17:52","slug":"australian-open-day-5-womens-predictions-swiatek-bouzkova","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/01\/21\/australian-open-day-5-womens-predictions-swiatek-bouzkova\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian Open Day 5 Women’s Predictions Including Iga Swiatek vs Marie Bouzkova"},"content":{"rendered":"

The second round wraps up on Day 5 of the Australian Open. We have 16 women’s singles matches on deck to decide who reaches Round 3. As always, our writers at LastWordOnTennis share their thoughts on the matches. We split the 16 matches between four articles. In addition to this article, the others feature Amanda Anisimova vs Katerina Siniakova<\/a>, Naomi Osaka vs Sorana Cirstea<\/a>, and Madison Keys vs Ashlyn Krueger<\/a>. Predicting these matches are Nurein Ahmed, Zain Mustafa, and Jordan Reynolds. Who do you think will advance to Round 3?<\/p>\n

Australian Open Day 5 Women’s Predictions<\/h2>\n

Laura Siegemund vs Maddison Inglis<\/h4>\n

Nurein:<\/em>
\nI still haven\u2019t digested Siegemund\u2019s victory against Samsonova. That was an incredible comeback. Inglis will try and feed off the crowd\u2019s energy here but she won\u2019t easily get patterns to latch onto against Siegemund. With the German the tennis doesn\u2019t really need to be pretty, but she will likely get a result.
\nPrediction: Siegemund in 3<\/em><\/p>\n

Zain:<\/em>
\nLaura Siegemund had the comeback of the first round, coming back from the brink on the back of her rally tolerance and slice variety. Maddison Inglis might not have much singles pedigree coming into this match, but in front of a home crowd, she has so far risen to the challenge at this tournament, and she just might have another match win in her here.
\nPrediction: Inglis in 3<\/em><\/p>\n

Jordan:<\/em>
\n37-year-old Siegemund\u2019s comeback against Liudmila Samsonova was outstanding, but also not too surprising since her game is ideal for disrupting her powerful opponent. Despite that great effort, I think Inglis will fare better than Samsonova. She got a great victory against Kimberly Birrell in the previous round, and is better suited to not letting Siegemund\u2019s game frustrate her.
\nPrediction: Inglis in 2<\/em><\/p>\n

Peyton Stearns vs Petra Marcinko<\/h4>\n

Nurein:<\/em>
\nStearns will look to dominate the forehand battle here. She\u2019s got steadier hands and is coming off a great first round performance against Kenin. Marcinko\u2019s upside is real, but I can\u2019t see her handling the pace from the American.
\nPrediction: Stearns in 2<\/em><\/p>\n

Zain:<\/em>
\nPetra Marcinko made the most of her opportunities to reach the second round, but against the big serve and aggressive game of Peyton Stearns, who is slowly but steadily regaining her form, the challenge might be too big to overcome.
\nPrediction: Stearns in 3<\/em><\/p>\n

Jordan:<\/em>
\nStearns\u2019s comfortable triumph over Sofia Kenin was highly impressive, and she dominated with her forehand throughout. The American faces a dangerous opponent in Marcinko, who has reached the second round in her maiden Grand Slam main draw appearance. I favor the more experienced Stearns, but expect it to be competitive.
\nPrediction: Stearns in 3<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

Janice Tjen vs Karolina Pliskova<\/h4>\n

Nurein:<\/em>
\nPliskova\u2019s reputation as one of the most dangerous players on hard courts took a hit following her absence on tour, but she was keen to remind us that form is only temporary. The win over Stephens gives her something to build on.
\nPrediction: Pliskova in 2<\/em><\/p>\n

Zain:<\/em>
\nKarolina Pliskova got her first Tour victory in around four months in the first round, and her power-baseline style on a slick hard-court surface can cause problems for many, despite her best tennis clearly being behind her at this point. Janice Tjen has great variety from the baseline, and if she uses her slice well and dictates rallies with her forehand, in this matchup between veteran and up-and-comer, the up-and-comer should win.
\nPrediction: Tjen in 2<\/em><\/p>\n

Jordan:<\/em>
\nPliskova\u2019s level to beat Sloane Stephens, against whom she had a very poor head-to-head, after being absent for so long, deserves praise. Nonetheless, I think her time in Melbourne<\/a> will be ended by Tjen. The Indonesian<\/a> performed excellently against Leylah Fernandez, and is better placed to exploit Pliskova\u2019s weaknesses than Stephens, who was also out for much of 2025.
\nPrediction: Tjen in 2<\/em><\/p>\n

Iga Swiatek vs Marie Bouzkova<\/h4>\n

Nurein:<\/em>
\nI just don\u2019t see how Bouzkova will make this uncomfortable for Swiatek. Yes, Bouzkova is one the fastest players on tour, but Swiatek takes control of points with intent and not patience and will certainly punishing any points that land neutral.
\nPrediction: Swiatek in 2<\/em><\/p>\n

Zain:<\/em>
\nAlthough 2026 has not started the way she would have liked, and she struggled uncharacteristically in the first round, Iga Swiatek is still a couple of good sets away from once again being arguably the most dangerous player on Tour. Marie Bouzkova\u2019s baseline consistency means the Pole will likely have to construct her points better, something that she not only can do, but might help her find her rhythm again.
\nPrediction: Swiatek in 2<\/em><\/p>\n

Jordan:<\/em>
\nDespite being a much superior player, Swiatek could find herself in trouble if she makes as many errors as the previous round against Yue Yuan. Bouzkova bases her game on consistency, and will try to bring out those errors from the Pole. Swiatek may still win even with a poor performance, and likely will prevail, but she would prefer to build some confidence by playing well.
\nPrediction: Swiatek in 2<\/em><\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Mike Frey-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The second round wraps up on Day 5 of the Australian Open. We have 16 women’s singles matches on deck to decide who reaches Round 3. As always, our writers at LastWordOnTennis share their thoughts on the matches. We split the 16 matches between four articles. In addition to this article, the others feature Amanda […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1601,"featured_media":63881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[4433,2363,4414,4315,15631,43259,43260,147,15562,460,15521,12539,16257,6173,15566,17633,17634,18047,18048,2373,2369],"class_list":["post-96363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","tag-australian-open-day-5-predictions","tag-australian-open-predictions","tag-australian-open-womens-predictions","tag-iga-swiatek","tag-iga-swiatek-predictions","tag-janice-tjen","tag-janice-tjen-predictions","tag-karolina-pliskova","tag-karolina-pliskova-predictions","tag-laura-siegemund","tag-laura-siegemund-predictions","tag-maddison-inglis","tag-maddison-inglis-predictions","tag-marie-bouzkova","tag-marie-bouzkova-predictions","tag-petra-marcinko","tag-petra-marcinko-predictions","tag-peyton-stearns","tag-peyton-stearns-predictions","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1601"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96363"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96383,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96363\/revisions\/96383"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}