Day three preview: tall ask for Tomic

Grand Slam tournaments seldom attain a cruising altitude. It’s the nature of the sport that things are constantly in flux as players rise and fall.

But at least this year’s Australian Open may settle into a more consistent, moderate pattern in terms of heat over the next five or six days following two scorchers to kick off the 2012 event.

The highlight of day three will be the return to Rod Laver Arena of Aussie phenom Bernard Tomic, in more pleasant conditions, after his valiant comeback victory over Fernando Verdasco on Monday.

The 6ft 5 Tomic will face an even taller opponent in 6ft 6 Sam Querrey, who reached a career-high ranking of No.17 a year ago. But the Californian, 24, is now at No.95 following elbow surgery last June that kept him off the tour until October. After losing first round in both Chennai and Auckland, Querrey may be regaining form but the 19-year-old Tomic will be favoured as long as his body holds up for another baseline duel after his four hours and 11 minutes on court Monday.

Assuming that Rafael Nadal (Tommy Haas) and Roger Federer (Andreas Beck) should win their encounters without too much fuss, the men’s line-up for Wednesday features several more competitive match-ups including Stanislas Wawrinka v Marcos Baghdatis, John Isner v David Nalbandian and Nicolas Almagro v Grigor Dimitrov.

Wawrinka won his only previous meeting with Baghdatis – Indians Wells 2008 – but the Cypriot and 2006 Aussie Open finalist is always inspired playing in front his supportive fanbase in Melbourne. The Swiss, ranked No.22 to No.44 for Baghdatis, has been spotty of late so the match is basically a toss-up.

Nalbandian leads Isner 2-0 (one when Isner retired) head-to-head and probably enters that contest as a slight favourite – especially with five sets to try to get his bearings on the 6ft 9 American’s mighty serve.

As for Almagro v Dimitrov, both have been known to have short fuses so keeping your head about you when the other guy is losing his could be the key to this one.

The women’s day three does not have as many intriguing match-ups, and it is a stretch to imagine that Aussies Olivia Rogowska (Li Na) and Casey Dellacqua (Victoria Azarenka) have a chance against their heavy-hitting, in-form opposition.

Top seed Caroline Wozniacki came through her first-rounder against Anastasia Rodionova with her iffy left wrist basically intact and should be fine against Anna Tatishvili today if it’s okay.

Kim Clijsters v Stephanie Foretz Gacon, of France, shapes up as one-way traffic for the defending champion as does Francesca Schiavone’s encounter with her Italian compatriot Romina Oprandi.

Maybe the most compelling match of the day will be between 16th seed Peng Shuai and Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic, a plucky lefthander who has won her two previous meetings with the 16th-seeded Chinese.