The English summer is allegedly here and the lawns of the tennis courts are in focus for the next month. The first serious grass court event is played this week as the Aegon Championships takes place at Queens Club.
The countdown to Wimbledon really begins this week with a number of protagonists fine tuning their game here including the former Wimbledon champion Andy Murray. He is joined by the likes of Stan Wawrinka, Nick Kyrgios, Marin Cilic and Milos Raonic in what is another excellent field in this event.
Market Leaders
Defending champion Andy Murray is the 11/8 favourite going into the tournament. He has won this title on four previous occasions but those wins have all come in an odd year. He has never won in an even year. Murray announced on the eve of the tournament that he is back working with Ivan Lendl again and there will no doubt be plenty of focus on that this week.
Milos Raonic is the second favourite here at 8/1 with Stan Wawrinka next at 9/1 alongside Nick Kyrgios. Richard Gasquet is 15/1 on the best prices with bookmakers taking no chances on Juan Martin del Potro offering him at 20/1. Marin Cilic is 22/1 and it is 33/1 bar those seven men.
Top Half
The top half this week is all about Andy Murray and in truth it is hard to see how he doesn’t make at least the semi-final with just Gilles Simon of any note in his quarter. A potential semi-final with maybe Richard Gasquet or Marin Cilic or even Feliciano Lopez would be more difficult but really if Murray plays well he should be looking at another Queens final.
There is other British interest in the top half with Aljaz Bedene, Dan Evans and Kyle Edmund all in the section while Benoit Paire and Nicolas Mahut could be dangerous floaters if they are given the chance to be.
Bottom Half
There are some tasty first round matches in this half of the draw not least Juan Martin del Potro against John Isner and Nick Kyrgios against Milos Raonic. Fernando Verdasco and Stan Wawrinka also meet in the first round.
British eyes will be on James Ward in this part of the draw. He faces Gilles Muller in the opening round and could take advantage of any fatigue in the man from Luxembourg after his final from last week was held over to Monday due to the weather.
Betting
I’m going to give the top half a miss this week because I don’t see Murray having too many problems going deep this week. Maybe if he gets knocked out early, and really I can only see that happening if Mahut nails a couple of tie-breaks against them, I will reassess the position but for now the top half doesn’t inspire a bet.
The bottom half looks much more open. We’re guaranteed to lose a genuine title contender in the opening round when Raonic and Kyrgios do battle while Wawrinka never convinces me on the grass and he is a top seed ready to be taken on.
The question is with who? There are a lot of heavy servers in this half of the draw and not many returners or players with a genuinely good all round game so just like last year when Kevin Anderson made it through the bottom half could turn into a bit of a serve-a-thon.
Obviously Kyrgios and Raonic would both fit that criteria but we don’t know who will come through there and both are a little short anyway given that they meet in the first round so I’m going to go for someone else with a similar profile.
John Isner has made the last 16 of both Grand Slams this year so he is hitting the ball well. We know he’s going to serve well. He has a monster delivery and he has plenty of power in his forehand and that can take you a long way on grass. Given the lack of genuine good returners in this half of the draw I fancy Isner can take a few scalps with him here. At 40/1 he’s worth a dabble on the outright market.
Tips
Back J.Isner to win Aegon Championships (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 41.00 with Skybet (1/2 1-2)
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