The second round of the Australian Open comes to an end this Thursday with the players from the bottom half of the draw in action. Bookmakers Review breaks down the fixtures below and lists the best available odds from green listed bookmakers.
Muller vs. Raonic
Two of the best servers in the game – Gilles Muller and Milos Raonic – will face each other with a place in the 3rd round at stake.
Muller couldn’t ask for a better start of season with the Luxembourger finally winning his first ATP World Tour title last week in Sydney. Famous for his remarkable serve, Gilles is never an easy opponent to face. Looking now to Muller’s numbers over the last two weeks, the world no.28 is firing an impressive average of 1.63 aces per service game.
After a disappointing loss in the ATP Brisbane semi-finals against Grigor Dimitrov, Raonic started his campaign in Melbourne with a solid straight sets victory over Dustin Brown. Milos was extremely pleased about his triumph, especially the way he hold serve with the Canadian saving all the three break points he face throughout the match.
Due to the quality of their serves, we expect at least one or two tie breaks in this match. Since things should be quite close, there is some good value on Muller’s price at 333/100 at BetVictor while Raonic is available at 11/50. Despite the value on Muller’s victory, we recommend you to take a more cautious approach with Gilles’ +2.5 Set Handicap at 63/100 at Pinnacle.
Agut vs Nishioka
After crushing Guido Pella on his debut by 6 – 3 6 – 1 6 – 1, the 2017 Chennai Open champion – Roberto Bautista Agut – is looking for another solid performance on the Australian Open. Agut holds a very good record in Melbourne with the Spaniard losing only in the 4th round last year against Tomas Berdych.
This is only Yoshihito Nishioka’s second career appearance in the 2nd round of a Grand Slam event. The previous one took place two years ago at the US Open with Nishioka losing in three easy sets against Thomaz Bellucci. Even though Yoshihito is a very good competitor, it’s hard for him to compete against the best players in the world with a 0 – 4 record against top 10 opponents throughout his career.
This should be a straightforward match for Agut with Nishioka unable to handle the Spaniard’s outstanding baseline game. The bookmakers think the same with Ladbrokes offering only 1/10 for Agut’s victory while Nishioka is available at 6/1 at Bet365. With this in mind, Bautista Agut’s -7.5 game handicap at 22/25 at Pinnacle is clearly the most valuable line for this match.
Calculators
