A COUPLE of power hitters and a rivalry that stretches into the double digits headline a huge Day 6 on the Australian Open calendar.

PICK OF THE DAY: [19] John Isner (USA) v. [15] Stan Wawrinka (SUI)

With plenty of closely seeded matchups on Day 6, ultimately the most intriguing match is between similarly seeded John Isner and Stan Wawrinka. As a past Open victor, Wawrinka knows what it takes to make it to the finals but still has to get through Isner who has plenty of strength behind his racket to push through to the fourth round. Wawrinka has shown some great form in recent months making it to back to back grand slam quarter-finals, meaning Isner will need to be on his game against the Swiss hard hitter, and will hope to push Wawrinka to the brink after averaging three hours on court across two tough matches. Neither player has yet come across another seeded playing, making this an interesting contest especially given Isner has won three of their four match-ups, with the last time Wawrinka came out on top way back in 2009.

CLOSE SECOND: [5] Elena Svitolina (UKR) v. Garbine Muguruza (ESP)

Unseeded Garbine Muguruza heads into this clash ready to take on the fifth seeded Elina Svitolina. A Grand Slam champion, the Spaniard knows how to go all the way in these tournaments. Remarkably these two have played 10 times over the journey, with Svitolina winning six of the matches. They played three times last year, with Mugueuza getting up at Roland Garros – also in the third round – but Svitolina won at both Dubai and Wuhan. It is the 25-year-old who has the better of the recent form with four wins from the past five encounters. You can never discount the former world number one however,

OTHERS TO CONSIDER:

[11] David Goffin (BEL) v. [17] Andrey Rublev (RUS)

With a 100 per cent win rate against David Goffin, Andrey Rublev will be fairly confident coming into this matchup – the fact that these players have only taken the court against each other once, in 2017, is beside the point. But in reality, it is the form of both Goffin and Rublev recently that will put plenty of fans in the stadium to see who can emerge victorious. The 22-year-old Russian is yet to lose in 2020, while Goffin has toppled some big names this year and is enjoying some superb form at 29-years-old. He is the higher ranked of the pair but would be aware of Rublev’s ability, especially after losing to the then 19-year-old at the US Open.

[6] Belinda Bencic (SUI) v. [28] Anett Kontaveit (EST)

These two players have not had the pleasure of facing each other as of yet, but the Swiss world number seven heads into the encounter as strong favourite. She has won four career titles by the age of 22, while Kontaveit just has the one with limited time on the WTA Tour despite being a couple of years older. With a career high ranking of 14th and currently ranked 31st in the world, Kontaveit is no slouch and has shown it so far at this tournament by making the third round.

[23] Nick Kyrgios (AUS) v. [16] Karen Khachanov (RUS)

Nick Kyrgios will head into this match off the back of a real blip in the radar in his Round 3 contest on Thursday, dropping his first set of the tournament and almost reverting to his old ways before collecting himself to run out victor in four sets. Russian 17th seed, Karen Khachanov has taken on the Aussie fan-favourite only once before, winning in straight sets making this a real comeback moment for Kyrgios who is looking for a clean slate in the tennis world. The big deal in this matchup is the fourth round opponent to come, with the winner of this matchup highly likely to take on first seed Rafael Nadal which could really put a spanner in the works.