Aussie Open - Mens QFs
Milos Raonic v Lucas Pouille
The first of our quarter-finals on Tuesday night sees Raonic take on Pouille. Raonic has won each of the three match-ups between the players in the past – and won every one of the seven sets of those meetings. It’s also hard to question his form – he’s already beaten Kyrgios, Wawrinka, Herbert and Zverev this week and only dropped a single set in doing so.
Lucas Pouille found things slightly harder against Kukushkin, Marterer, Popyrin and Coric. Marterer taking him to a fourth set and Popyrin making him work fully through five sets. Nevertheless, the market looks to have this one in hand.
One special worth taking an interest in is for Raonic to serve the most double faults. He’s considered a 2/1 shot to do so, but serves 6.13% of points down as DFs, compared to just 4.13% for Pouille. It’s marginal, but worth a small bet as we look to improve a terrible run through the tournament so far.
1pt Raonic to Serve Most Double Faults at 2/1
Novak Djokovic v Kei Nishikori
Another match with a heavy favourite, and given Djokovic has won the last 15 meetings between the pair – a run dating back to 2014 - it’s hardly a surprise. Overall he is 17-2 ahead but those defeats came many moons ago now.
Djokovic has been less dominant than some expected this week, dropping sets against both Denis Shapovalov and Daniil Medvedev. Both are capable players though, so I have no real issues with those results.
Nishikori has spent a lot of time on court this week – being taken to five sets against Kamil Majchrzak, again against Ivo Karlovic and then once against in his match with Pablo Carreno Busta! A total of 13 hours and 47 minutes in fact over his first four matches.
With Djokovic already short enough, we’ll resist a bet in this one.