Swiss stars go head-to-head for place in Australian Open semi-final
Published:Tuesday morning sees the first of the men’s Australian quarter-finals, and what a line-up the first Grand Slam of the year is producing.
Stanislas Wawrinka’s reward for his comfortable win over Andy Roddick is a tie with fellow countryman and world number two Roger Federer, and Wawrinka is the 10/3 underdog to progress to the semi-final.
Federer is arguably the world’s most in-form player and having made eight finals in his last ten tournaments, winning five of them, he is justifiably the 1/5 favourite to beat Wawrinka.
However Wawrinka is yet to drop a set in the Australian Open and the Wawrinka that Federer will meet on Rod Laver arena tonight, will be a tougher opponent than the Wawrinka that he holds a 6-1 head-to-head advantage over.
Federer has dropped just three sets to Wawrinka in this time, but having been involved in one five-setter already this tournament, Federer could be taken the distance again and a 3-2 victory for the world number two is priced at 11/2.
Three of Wawrinka’s four first sets have gone to a seventh game and a tie-break in the first set is temptingly priced at 10/3, but the 4/5 for over 9.5 games in the first set is the pick of the value.
Novak Djokovich vs Tomas Berdych
Berdych has been seriously impressive in the Australian Open so far and at 2/1 to beat Djokovic, his price is very attractive.
But in Djokovic, Berdych faces a world number three who has beaten him twice recently, and the Serb holds a 4-1 head-to-head record over the Czech and is 4/11 to win.
It could be another classic for the Rod Laver crowd to enjoy, and a five set win for Djokovic is priced at 11/2 and total games over 37.5 is priced at 8/11.
But the value is in backing Djokovic at 4/6 to win the first set and the match.
A £25 double on Federer and Djokovic both winning 3-2 would return £1,056.35. New customers can sign up here for a free tennis bet worth £25.
