Ostapenko is seeded 16th in the tournament and is 17th in the WTA ranking, while Bencic is 421st in the world.
Both tennis players have won matches between each other. In the 1/32 finals of the 2018 Indian Wells tournament, Ostapenko was superior in three sets to the USA, but in the second round of the 2020 Australian Open, the Swiss took revenge with 7-5, 7-5.
Last year, Ostapenko reached the third round in singles and the final in doubles. The best singles achievement for a Latvian tennis player in the Australian Masters is the quarter-final reached in 2023, but Benčiča has reached the fourth round twice.
In the second round, the winner will have to meet the Dutch Suzanne Lamans (WTA 80) or one of the participants of the qualifying tournament.
It has already been reported that the second racket of Latvian tennis, Darja Semenistaja, lost on Tuesday in the match of the first round of the tournament qualification, earning two WTA ranking points.
The main tournament of the Australian Open Championship on hard surfaces will take place from January 12 to 26.