Wawrinka and Tomic look unlikely double act at Australian Open

Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer are the star attractions of the men’s action on day five of the Australian Open and both should have little trouble continuing their passage into the fourth round.

Despite his ongoing knee problems, Nadal should overcome Lukas Lacko at 1/50, while Federer is 1/25 in the Australian Open odds to see off Ivo Karlovic.

There are two matches that are much closer to call in a betting sense, with home hope Bernard Tomic taking on Alex Dolgopolov and Stanislas Wawrinka stepping on court with Nicolas Almagro.

Bernard Tomic to beat Alex Dolgopolov @ 8/11

This seems a slightly strange outcome to predict given that Dolgopolov has won all of their three previous career encounters, including showdowns last year in Sydney and Shanghai.

However, aside from the roar and support of the Australian crowd, there are other reasons to suggest that Tomic can claim a rare triumph.

Tomic has improved considerably since and was arguably hindered by a rain break in Shanghai when he had established a one-set advantage, which caused the match to move indoors in majorly different conditions.

Dolgopolov may also be tired after both of his opening two games in Melbourne went to a fifth set and the slower conditions will not be to his liking in comparison to when the pair previously clashed.

Stanislas Wawrinka to beat Nicolas Almagro @ 2/5

Wawrinka has the greater Grand Slam pedigree of the duo and is almost certainly more at home on a hard court.

Almagro can be classed as somewhat fortunate to scrape by Grigor Dimitrov in the last round and Wawrinka will make him pay if presented the same opportunities to those that Dimitrov wasted.

In terms of set betting, Wawrinka to prevail 3-1 looks the stand-out option at 5/2.

The double on Tomic and Wawrinka both winning pays 11/8.