By Nick Georgandis
© Mark Peterson/Corleve

Throughout each and every day of the tournament, we'll be providing you several "matches to watch" - interesting combinations we feel should be both entertaining to the eye and impactful to the way the rest of the tournament will fall.

Without further adieu, here are Tuesday's top 8 matches (4 ATP, 4 WTA). Note that because of the time difference between the continental US and Australia, most matches will be taking place late the night before the scheduled date.

ATP

Gilles Simon vs. Roger Federer (2) - The Talented Mr. Federer has never lost a second-round match at the Australian Open, rather staggering considering this is his 12th rodeo down under. But what he has done is lose to Simon in their only two meetings, both in 2008. Simon is off to a hot start this year, 5-1 while Federer is undefeated to date.

Janko Tipsarevic vs. Fernando Verdasco (9) - Whoever drew up this matchup should be ashamed, neither man deserves to go out so early, and to pit two such fiery competitors against one another in the second round is shameful, while lesser players match up with obscure qualifiers. It was in this round at the US Open that Tipsarevic pulled his big upset of Andy Roddick last year. History could repeat itself here, he owns a 2-1 record against Verdasco, although the Spaniard won their last meeting, on hard courts at Valencia in 2009.

Mardy Fish (16) vs. Tommy Robredo - As Spaniards go, Robredo is probably the one you'd want to see early in a tournament, he's "only" ranked 52nd. But he owns a 4-3 career record over Fish, who sweated out an illness and a five-set, first-round win on Monday. Fish does have history here though, a second-round, straight sets win over Robredo in 2008.

Viktor Troicki (29) vs. Nicolas Mahut - Kudos to Mahut for getting out of the first round and giving people something to talk about besides the first round of Wimbledon. But beating Troicki will be a bit more tricky, as the Serbian has begun gaining steam in his quest for the Top 20.

WTA

Caroline Wozniacki (1) vs. Vania King - Wozniacki shunted the bleeding considerably with a strong first-round win on Monday. An impressively-successful doubles player (ranked No. 4), this is as big as it gets for King on the singles circuit. Her first-round win Monday got her above .500 as a singles player for her career (138-137). They've met just once, with Wozniacki sweating out a three-set win at Indian Wells last year.

Venus Williams (4) vs. Sandra Zahlavova - Her first-round win was so easy that the focus was once again on Venus' outfit, a too-short frock. Looking vastly younger than her 25 years, Zahlavova is just inside the Top 100. She took out countrywoman Renata Voracova to get here.

Jelena Dokic vs. Barbora Zahlavova Strycova - Other than having a great name for SCRABBLE, Zahlavova Strycova is fairly unknown for being ranked 63rd in the world. Her upset of Arvanne Rezai in the first round has her here, facing the wild card Dokic, who whipped her first-round opponent. Although she was born in Croatia, Dokic calls Australia home and the fans will be squarely in her corner.

Justine Henin (11) vs. Elena Baltacha - The last British woman to win a major was Virginia Wade at Wimbledon in 1977 .. so, no pressure there, Elena! Henin looked a bit ragged to start her tournaent, but she did last year too, and ended up in the final.