The Australian Open gets underway this Monday with the players from the top half of the draw on the men’s competition in action. Bookmakers Review breaks down the fixtures below and lists the best available odds from green listed bookmakers.
Tomic vs. Bellucci
We’ll start our analysis with the match between the home player – Bernard Tomic – and Thomaz Bellucci.
While playing ‘at home’ is a disadvantage for some players, that’s definitely not Tomic’s case. Bernard holds a remarkable 74.76% winning record on Australian soil throughout his career while his record outside Australia is only 51.15%. Despite Bernard’s recent defeats in Brisbane and Kooyong, the world no.27 said that he’ll be ready and at 100% for this event.
Even though Bellucci can play at a decent level on Hard Courts, this is far from his favorite surface. While Thomaz won 66.48% of the matches played on clay throughout his career, his numbers on Hard Court are much worse with only 46.43%. Bellucci is well aware of Tomic’s quality, saying that the Australian is a very unpredictable player and extremely strong when playing with the crowd support.
It’s hard to see what the Brazilian can do against Tomic on this game conditions. Despite Bellucci’s 2 – 1 lead on the h2h, Bernard is a completely different player on this event. Therefore, Tomic is the clear favourite for this contest 2/5 at Bet365 while William Hill offers 19/10 for Bellucci’s victory. If you’re looking to take a higher odd, then Tomic’s -4 game handicap is the bet to take at 91/100 at Pinnacle.
Tsonga vs. Monteiro
Looking to the matches scheduled for this Monday in Melbourne, the contest between Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Thiago Monteiro might be closer than the odds suggest.
Tsonga is always a player to keep an eye on this tournament. With a 30 – 9 career record, the 2008 Australian Open runner-up loves the game conditions in Melbourne. Despite Tsonga’s impressive results throughout his career, the French rarely wins his matches by a wide margin. Adding to this, Jo is also famous for his inconsistent backhand, especially in the earlier stages of the competitions.
Although Monteiro might a strange to some of the top players, that’s definitely not Tsonga’s case. The Brazilian featured a tremendous win last year in Rio de Janeiro’s clay courts, defeating the French in three close sets. Even though Thiago is well aware of the difficult task ahead of him, the world no.83 said that he’ll try his best to achieve another huge win.
The bookmakers expect a very easy win from Tsonga with the French priced as heavy favourite at 1/50 at 5Dimes while Monteiro is available 20/1 at Bet365. Although we don’t believe in a victory from the Brazilian, we expect him to keep the scoreboard very close in all the sets. For that reason, the value is clearly on Monteiro’s +9 game handicap at 49/50 at Pinnacle.
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