It looks Roger Federer is locked in to be a force at the Australian Open once again this year, as he demolished Aljaz Bedene, ranked #49 in the world, without appearing to break much of a sweat, rolling 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 in his opening match that took just over 90 minutes. That was just the latest in a string of first-round wins in majors for Federer, dating back to the 2003 French Open. Federer’s win was just one of many results in the opening weekend that you should consider as you put together your tennis betting preview for the first tennis major in 2018.
2018 Australian Open: Latest Betting Preview
Well, American women went 0-8 in the first round of the Australian Open. Perhaps the most bizarre loss came from CoCo Vandeweghe, ranked #9 in the world, but she lost her temper and fell in straight sets to Hungarian Timea Babos, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2. Vandeweghe even took a code violation because she took so long to eat a banana that it kept her from returning to the court on time. Fellow American Sloane Stephens was serving for the match but ended up being broken and later would lose, and Venus Williams lost to Belinda Bencic in straight sets. These results show just how unpredictable the women’s side of the bracket was in the first round of action. The women’s side almost featured the most significant upset imaginable, as Destanee Aiava, a 17-year-old from Australia, led Simona Halep — the #1 ranked player in the world — 5-2 in the first set. However, Aiava had to take a medical timeout late in that opening set, pushing to a tiebreak and winning the first set. It looked like Halep sprained her left ankle in the second set, but she still took it 6-1 to win in straight sets. Even as dominant as Federer looked in his opening round, Novak Djokovic may have looked even better. He shut down American Donald Young in the first round, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4, showing that the time that he missed due to an elbow injury has not left him with any significant rust. In the first round, the men’s bracket did feature some significant upsets. Jack Sock, seen by some as a potential sleeper, went down in four sets to unseeded Yuichi Sugita despite holding the eighth seed. John Isnger (#16), Lucas Pouille (#18), and Philipp Kohlschreiber (#27) were the seeds who fell on the opening Sunday. On Monday, Roberto Bautista Agut (#20) and Milos Raonic (#22) were the only seeds who fell in the last of the first round. So how do these results affect our betting advice for this tournament? Well, the only top ten on the men’s side who went down was Sock — and we saw him as a sort of sleeper anyway. Federer still looks locked in — but we have to wonder if Djokovic might be just a little hungrier after having to take all that time away from the court. Rafael Nadal, Grigor Dimitrov, Alexander Zverev, Stan Wawrinka, and Pablo Carreno Busta all look strong as well. If I were locking in my bets today, my first instinct would be to stick with the favorite, Federer, but if you want to up your payout a little more you might consider Nadal as well. What about on the women’s side? Halep escaped with a win, but pay attention to her ankle updates before you lock in any futures money on her. She might have been able to bull through her win with adrenalin, but the next match for her will be key to see what her mobility is like. Caroline Wozniacki was one of the few top seeds on the women’s side to make her opening round match look easy, cruising in straight sets, so I would put my futures money on her at this point.Hungry for more AO2018 action? Here are six juicy matches for you to get your teeth into on Day 3 https://t.co/l6ubyXXp8V 😬#AusOpen pic.twitter.com/KJjgJiVHdQ
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 16, 2018
