As the second round of ATP action opens in Melbourne, two Australians try to build on the support of their ardent fans to keep their campaigns alive.

Philipp Kohlschreiber v. Bernard Tomic

Bernard Tomic could be in for a very late night/early morning when he takes on Philipp Kohlschreiber in the second round of the Australian Open on Wednesday. Kohlschreiber and Tomic are set to square off in Margaret Court Arena in a match that should begin around 9 p. m. Melbourne time.

Tomic and Kohlschreiber have only met on two previous occasions, but their games will be very familiar to each other, having met last week in the second round in Sydney. Tomic won this match in straight sets, evening their head-to-head at 1-1. Kohlschreiber breezed through his first-round match against Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu, whereas Tomic was made to struggle by Tobias Kamke in a match that took four sets for the Australian native to close out.

Throughout their careers, these two players have been diametrically opposed in terms of how they have handled themselves from a professional perspective. The consummate professional in Kohlschreiber is a contrast from Tomic, who has been consistently viewed as immature and uncommitted.

As a seeded player, Kohlschreiber received the short end of the stick in terms of quality of opponent. Tomic is as tough as a second round could get for a seeded player. Kohlschreiber is going to have to be very careful in this match. Tomic will have the backing of the Aussie crowd and will be looking to frustrate the German with his variety and off-speed game. Tomic has a tremendously effective slice backhand and can frustrate his opposition by injecting minimal pace upon the ball. While seemingly harmless against top-notch competition, this forces players to create their own pace. At 6’5, Tomic is a very good defender and gets to a lot more balls than one would expect, using his ridiculously long wingspan to retrieve shots with substantial width.

Responding to Tomic will require Kohlschreiber to remain patient and not overhit, which is very tempting when lollipops are being thrown your way. In addition, Tomic will welcome Kohlschreiber attempting to beat him with pace. Cut from the same cloth as Gilles Simon, Tomic loves pace.

Kohlschreiber is a brilliant point constructor, and his tennis IQ will have to be put to good use. He’ll need to pick his spots well, work the angles, and look to move forward when he can.

This has five sets written all over it. I’ll give Tomic the edge with home-court advantage.

Prediction: Tomic in five sets

Ivo Karlovic v. Nick Kyrgios

If you want to see long rallies and entertaining baseline duels, go somewhere else. Nick Kyrgios and Ivo Karlovic are going to hit ace after ace after ace.

The question in this match is who is going to be able break serve and why. From Karlovic’s perspective, the return of serve is simple. His strokes are already pretty short, so he doesn’t have to change much to get the return back into play. His reaction skills aren’t the best, but with his wingspan, he could make things difficult for Kyrgios.

Forget Kyrgios’ return of serve. It really doesn’t matter. If Karlovic serves as he did against Djokovic in Doha, forget it. Even if Kyrgios is able to make a play on some first serves here and there, Karlovic, the apt serve and volleyer that he is, will be ready to close things off at the net.

If these two somehow get into some baseline rallies, Kyrgios should have the decided advantage. But don’t count out Karlovic, who can take a cut at a few balls here and there and work the chip backhand around the court.

Kyrgios didn’t look great against clay-court specialist Federico Delbonis in the opening round, while Karlovic only dropped 12 points on serve in his first-round match against Ruben Bemelmans.

Kyrgios’ form hasn’t been overly convincing as of late, and for that reason I’ll take the Croatian.

Prediction: Karlovic in four sets