It is the second day of the Olympic Games tennis event on Sunday and the really big names all come out to play across a packed card of first round action in both singles and doubles.
Players such as Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Garbine Muguruza and Angelique Kerber all take to the courts as the event has a feeling of really beginning on Sunday.
Saturday Review
It was a nice first day for us on Saturday as our only bet in the day came in without too many problems when Eugenie Bouchard eased through in straight sets. We had two outrights on show on the opening day too and both won in straight sets with Marin Cilic and Madison Keys winning with ease.
Away from our bets there were surprise exits for Agnieszka Radwanska and Venus Williams with the latter beaten in an Olympic epic late into the night by Kirsten Flipkens. In the men’s draw everyone who was expected to come through did so safely with Jack Sock the only seed to fall on the day.
It was also a good day for the British players as Kyle Edmund and Heather Watson came through in the singles while Watson then went and partnered Jo Konta to a ladies doubles success too so they will hope to push for a medal from the position they are in.
Men’s Singles
All eyes will be on the two main men on Sunday. Andy Murray is on centre court in the afternoon, early evening UK time, when he faces Viktor Troicki while the main event of the day is the match between Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin del Potro which is the final match on Centre Court. I don’t see either seed losing but how comfortable they will win remains to be seen.
Rafael Nadal is the other huge name on show on Sunday. He faces Federico Delbonis and you just have to take the Spaniard on. Admittedly you would be doing just that because Delbonis is anything but reliable but there is more than a hint of Nadal competing in Rio just because it is the Olympics, something he believes in.
If he is anything close to his best Nadal will win this but at 10/3 the price is there to pay to see just how close to his best he is so I’m on the Argentine in that match in our only bet of the day on Centre Court.
Elsewhere in the men’s draw we will be hoping David Goffin can overcome Sam Groth and boost our outright hopes but there are two other matches he are going to take bets in. The first is the Gilles Muller vs Jerzy Janowicz match where tie-breaks are extremely likely between two heavy servers.
Muller is limited in the ground game while Janowicz is probably more erratic so it might be that this one goes the distance in which case the 22.5 games line will be far too low but even if it is won in straight sets I’m not expecting many breaks of throw and as such the overs on that line looks perfectly good to me.
I’m also going to oppose the mentally fragile Benoit Paire. You never truly know whether he will fancy the job but we can be sure Lukas Rosol will and while the Czech’s results haven’t pulled up any trees recently if we look a little deeper we can see he led Sam Querrey 2-0 before going down in an epic marathon final set at Wimbledon and the way Querrey played that week there was nothing wrong with that effort and then the next week he took Tsonga to five sets in the Davis Cup.
Benoit Paire has done little of late since he flopped out of Wimbledon and although form and all the other issues you would use to weigh up a player’s mood doesn’t count with him we do know if Rosol can turn this into a battle the Frenchman might not fancy it. I’ll go with Rosol there.
Women’s Singles
All eyes will be on the three Grand Slam winners on Sunday. Serena Williams is second on Centre Court around 5pm UK time when she faces Australia’s Daria Gavrilova while Garbine Muguruza begins the evening session on the same court shortly before 11pm UK time. She faces Jelena Jankovic in a great match.
Angelique Kerber opens up proceedings on Court 1. The Australian Open champion and Wimbledon finalist faces Mariana Duque-Marino of Colombia who shouldn’t be short of crowd support. I’m expecting all three big names to come through although in fairness Jelena Jankovic could push Muguruza.
Caroline Wozniacki, Johanna Konta, Sam Stosur and Petra Kvitova all take the court on Sunday too but our betting attention is elsewhere in the Misaki Doi vs Yaroslava Shvedova match which is on one of the outside courts.
Misaki Doi is a solid player who hasn’t done a huge amount wrong this year but Shvedova was hitting the ball really well at Wimbledon recently and if she has that ground game with her here then she will take plenty of beating in this match.
Shvedova took care of some big players in SW19 including Sabine Lisicki and Lucie Safarova and didn’t do a huge amount wrong in the quarter final against Venus Williams. Doi doesn’t really have the weapons to blast the Kazakh away so if Shvedova hits it like she did in London she can come through here.
Doubles
As with Saturday I will keep an eye on the doubles events but we’ve already seen some big names go out as they are with different partners this week and that takes some getting used to so I’ll continue to take a watching brief on the pairs until something comes up that I like later in the week.
Tips
WON – Back G.Muller vs J.Janowicz – Over 22.5 games for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Boylesports
Back it here:
Back F.Delbonis to beat R.Nadal for a 2/10 stake at 4.33 with Bet365
Back him here:
Back L.Rosol to beat B.Paire for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Coral
Back him here:
Back Y.Shvedova to beat M.Doi for a 4/10 stake at 2.38 with Skybet
Back her here:
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