Ricky Dimon
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The Australian Open continues on Tuesday and hopefully as we get deeper and deeper into the tournament the focus will be less and less on Novak Djokovic’s deportation. It’s time to focus on what’s happening on the court, and that is exactly what we are doing in this daily preview.
Day 2 will see the bottom halves of the men’s and women’s singles draws lacing up their shoes. That includes Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitisipas, Andrey Rublev, Garbine Muguruza, and Emma Raducanu.
Let’s take a look at the best bets to be made.
Emma Raducanu vs Sloane Stephens Over 21.5 games (-115)
Raducanu predictably hit the wall following her stunning triumph at the 2021 U.S. Open. The 19-year-old Brit is just 2-4 in six matches since with some absolutely terrible results included. Meanwhile, Stephens has not yet played a match this season because she just married soccer star Jozy Altidore. The American is going to be rusty. This is the marquee matchup of the entire first round and for the reasons mentioned above you can expect it to be a rollercoaster ride. It may not be pretty, but it should be wildly entertaining — and most importantly for the sake of this bet, competitive. My exact play would be on Stephens to lose the first set and then come back and win in three.
Philipp Kohlschreiber over Marco Cecchinato (-179)
When can you feel good about betting on a 38-year-old who is past his prime? The answer is when he is playing against Marco Cecchinato, of course! Cecchinato has been the essence of a clay-court specialist throughout his career and he is not suddenly going to become decent on hard courts as he approaches 30 years old. He is a laughable 38-73 lifetime on hard courts. One of those losses came just last fall to none other than Kohlschreiber — in straight sets at a small tournament in Sofia. Even though Kohlschreiber is no longer at his peak, he should have no trouble taking care of Cecchinato once again.
Benoit Paire vs Thiago Monteiro Under 38 games (-120)
I also like Monteiro -4.5 games, but the under gives you another outlet on the off chance that Paire wakes up on the right side of the bed on Tuesday. It is true that Paire remains extremely talented. When he plays well he is capable of beating just about anyone on any given day. Unfortunately for the Frenchman, he has been a complete disaster dating all the way back to the start of the pandemic. He is less than 100 percent physically, too. Paire retired from a match in Melbourne two weeks ago and then did the same from a doubles match last week in Adelaide. In singles, he is coming off a 6-4, 6-0 loss to Thanasi Kokkinakis. Monteiro is a consistent baseliner who is more than capable of making opponents—opponents like Paire, to be specific–beat themselves. This should be a quick one.
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