The Australian Open began with a bang on Monday and the first round of the event continues throughout Tuesday out in Melbourne with some more big names in action with some big stories to be played out.
The opening day saw comfortable wins for Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Tomas Berdych in the men’s draw while in the women’s event Serena Williams came through unscathed as did Maria Sharapova but Caroline Wozniacki was the first big name to fall by the wayside.
Tuesday sees the likes of Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal and Stan Wawrinka begin their quest for the title on the male side of the draw while in the women’s competition the heavily touted Victoria Azarenka is in action as well as the number two seed Simona Halep and Garbine Muguruza.
Monday was a quiet day on the betting front for me but I’m going a bit heavier into Tuesday’s action with six bets on my radar across the two draws so it is a busy session in Melbourne.
My betting begins right from the off out on court 13 where Katerina Siniakova takes on the rising Swiss star Timea Bacsinszky in an interesting match.
Swiss tennis is very much on a good footing at the minute with Federer and Wawrinka genuine contenders for any tournament and Belinda Bencic a rising star. Add into the mix the return to doubles for Martina Hingis and you can see why tennis is rising in Switzerland.
Bacsinszky hasn’t had the best of build ups for this tournament but she showed her big game credentials last year and seems to raise her level for the big events.
She beat Jelena Jankovic in the first round here 12 months ago and followed that up with runs to the semi-final of the French Open and the quarter final at Wimbledon. In that French Open semi-final she led Serena Williams 1-0 in sets and on a stage like that performances like that bode well for her here.
Siniakova is one of the up and coming players in the world game but this level is a different ball game and I’m not sure the Czech is quite ready for it yet. I’m backing the Swiss player to come safely through.
We move to the men’s event for my next few bets. They begin out on court 3 where Rajeev Ram takes on the seeded Kevin Anderson. I’m a big fan of Anderson and enjoyed watching his rise last season but this doesn’t look a straight forward test for the South African.
This match sees two players who base their game around a heavy serve taking on each other and I’m expecting a couple of tight sets off the back of that. Usually I’d suggest Anderson could come through in straight sets but having pulled out in Chennai there are a few concerns over his fitness.
Ram will hide behind a big serve which should ensure we get the odd tie break or two and if he can come through one of those we are going to see way more than the 34.5 games line that is the projected total. The way these two play even four sets will cover that comfortably and I think we’ll get them.
We’ve already seen a few seeds fall on the opening day of the tournament and I think another could well go on Tuesday when the 31st seed Steve Johnson takes on the British convert Aljaz Bedene.
Bedene has begun 2016 well with a run to the semi-finals in Chennai and he can use that to launch a win here. Bedene has a good all round game which is effective on any surface and he has plenty of momentum with him going into this week.
Johnson has done well to rise up to 32 in the world rankings but he hasn’t kicked off this year too well with first round defeats in Brisbane and Auckland to two limited opponents and I believe he’s there for the taking here especially with him in the rare position of being the favourite in a Grand Slam match.
Bedene could play with a bit more freedom and can get over the line in the tighter moments which can be the difference in this one.
Back on the women’s side of things Alize Cornet is in action on Tuesday when she takes on Bojana Jovanovski. Cornet warmed up for this tournament by winning the event in Hobart last week where she beat Eugenie Bouchard in the final so she will be full of confidence here.
The same can’t really be said of her opponent. She is in wretched form having lost in the first round of both her tournaments this year. In the four sets she has played she’s been bagelled three times and confidence must be at an all time low. I would be very surprised if this is anything but extremely one sided in Cornet’s favour.
Finally Lleyton Hewitt begins his final Australian Open and he does so out on the Rod Laver Arena in the night session when he faces James Duckworth. All sorts of emotions will be going on in the arena but we know one thing – Hewitt will have the whole of the crowd.
It will be quite hard for Duckworth to play this match I think. Not only because he’ll have the crowd up against him but Hewitt will be his hero and if he wins here that is it for the veteran so he’ll be battling as many emotions as Hewitt.
Given that he knows it is his last tournament Hewitt might well be able to play with the more freedom of the two and I think there is one last Laver Arena hurrah for the Australian legend.
Back T.Bacsinzsky (-3.5 games) to beat K.Siniakova for a 4/10 stake at 1.98 with Unibet
Back K.Anderson vs R.Ram – Over 34.5 games for a 4/10 stake at 1.90 with Stan James
Back R.Ram (+2.5 sets) to beat K.Anderson for a 4/10 stake at 2.32 with Unibet
Back A.Bedene to beat S.Johnson for a 4/10 stake at 2.25 with Betway
Back A.Cornet (-5.5 games) to beat B.Jovanovski for a 5/10 stake at 1.73 with Betfred
Back L.Hewitt (-2.5 games) to beat J.Duckworth for a 4/10 stake at 1.85 with William Hill
Your so good