The hardcourt tennis action in Canada has been nothing short of stunning with many of the top seeds falling away quite early in the piece. In the Montreal Masters, defending champion Andy Murray lost in the opening round and was soon followed out of the competition by Rafael Nadal. The latest top-ranked player to go was Roger Federer leaving an interesting quartet to fight out the semi-finals.
In the ladies event in Toronto, all of the top seeds slowly crumbled leaving the prospect of a Serena Williams v Stosur final – and their matches are great to watch. They both need to get past their respective semi-final opponents first, and they too should be good games to watch. It’s the outright betting in both events that holds the most interest now.
Novak Djokovic is the outright favourite to win in Montreal but his odds of 3/10 are not exactly great. However, his only real opponent left in the tournament is Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, quoted at 5/2 and second favourite. If Djokovic wins, then you can expect to see his odds firm in to 1/10 – almost unbackable. However, his opponent in the final will be either Mardy Fish (5/1) or the unseeded Janko Tipsarevic (9/1) – hardly a challenge for either Djokovic or Tsonga.
In Toronto, the betting is much tighter with Serena Williams quoted at 7/5 ahead of her semi-final opponent Victoria Azarenka (2/1). Surprisingly, bookmakers have Agnieszka Radwanska as third favourite at 7/2 ahead of her semi-final opponent Samantha Stosur (5/1). Those two matches should be great to watch with the four players well suited to each other’s game. Age may be a telling factor for Williams – she’s 30 now and hasn’t played a lot of tennis over the last 12 months.
We’re tipping Djokovic to win his 53rd match from 52 and to then defeat Fish in the final while in the ladies event we’re tipping Williams and Stosur to battle out the final with Williams just edging out her opponent. The big winners will be the fans – there will be some great tennis from those finals, especially in the ladies events.