Three to See: Considering Roger Federer’s 3rd-rounder v. Tomas Berdych

Before each day of play at the Australian Open, we'll preview and predict three must-see matches. For full coverage of the season's first Slam, go to our men’s and women’s tournament pages.

At last year’s U.S. Open, Sock ripped through Marin Cilic in straight sets and looked ready for more. Then he met up with Tsonga in the next round and came right back down to earth, losing in four sets. This time the situation is similar. Sock is coming off a title run in Auckland and a convincing straight-set win over young Russian Karen Khachanov. At 24, ranked No. 20, Sock looks ready to began carrying the banner for U.S. men’s tennis. Can the 31-year-old Tsonga stop him again? He is 2-0 against Sock, but the generations have to change over at some point. Don’t they?

Winner: Sock

Anyone for an evening tilt between two talented party boys, in often-raucous Hisense Arena? Sounds like a winner to me. Tomic and Evans have great hands and fun, finesse-oriented games to watch when they’re on. But to the the Aussie and British tennis federations, they’re still better known as the bad seeds of their respective nations. They’ve played twice, and each has won once. This time Bernie will have the crowd behind him.

Winner: Tomic

The word is that Berdych is actually the favorite against Federer in this one. Is that plausible? Federer is a 17-time Slam champion, has a 16-6 record against Berdych, and has won their last five meetings, including one in Melbourne 12 months ago. But Federer is also playing his first tournament in six months, and it has shown. He experienced more than his share of shanks and shaky moments in his first two rounds. Berdych has also beaten Federer on a similarly big stage before, in a night match at the 2012 U.S. Open. Yet somehow I will still be surprised if he does it again.

Winner: Federer