Tennis

It would be crazy of us to jump off Baez after he has delivered as the outsider in every match this week!!! The Argentine improved to 7-0 for the season following his brilliant run at the United Cup and he continues to return serve at an extremely high level. He has 6 breaks of serve in wins over Brooksby and Shelton with 4 in his most recent win over Giron. Mensik will consistently thunder down first serves above 220 km/h but he did drop serve three times in his win over Marozsan and that opens the door for Baez. The…

When Mensik was broken in the opening match by Mpetshi Perricard it looked as though we would be in store for a tight three set contest. Mensik had other ideas as he won 12 of the final 16 games of the match against one of the most dominant servers on tour. His returns were coming out of the middle of the racquet and he was crushing backhands down the line – a great sign for the 20 year old moving forward. Marozsan needed three sets to get past Spizzirri but the biggest concern for him is a straight sets loss…

After losing his final five matches of the season, Italian Luciano Darderi was able to get the better of Tabilo and begin the new year with a win. Winning is something his opponent has done a lot of in 2026 with an impressive 5-1 start to his season. He lost to eventual champion alexander Bublik in the semi finals in Hong Kong and will be very confident after having defeated Darderi in straight sets in Eastbourne last year. Taking him to replicate that outcome here. Bet Now Ben Shelton vs Sebastien Baez 12:40pm* Thursday | Centre Court Baez +3.5 ($2.10)…

A year ago, Nuno Borges played some of the best tennis of his career to make the semi finals of the ASB Classic (lost to Bergs). Keen to accumulate some early ranking points, he ventured to Hong Kong last week where he beat the duo of Dzumhur and Cilic before losing to Rublev. Etcheverry has followed the same path and took the first set off Musetti before being outplayed thereafter. There isn’t much between these two who play a similar grinding style but leaning to Borges for two reasons – his form in this tournament a year ago and his…

Several top players have decided that the best way to prepare for the Australian Open is to play in Aukland this week. That including Shelton, Ruud and Mensik who are all ranked in the top 20. Cameron Norrie returns to the city he once called home with Michelsen, Monfils, Darderi, Baez and the big hitting Mpetshi-Perricard among the other notable names in the field. We kick things off with veteran Adrian Mannarino who takes on qualifier Eliot Spizzirri. Adrian Mannarino vs Eliot Spizzirri 11:30am Monday | Centre Court Spizzirri WIN @ $1.55 This is a very tricky opening round match…

We were on the mark in the first semi with Wang winning a three set contest and delivering us a $5.25 winner. Jovic made an excellent start breaking the Svitolina serve twice to open the match and take a 3-0 lead. The top seed was able to claw her way back to win the first in a breaker before running away with it in the second set. She has been installed as an overwhelming favourite to win the final and a contributing factor is a dominant 6-2 6-1 win over Wang in their only prior meeting. That clash came almost…

It was smooth sailing for both women in their respective quarter final matches with Wang again winning a high number of return points (49%). Eala was above 50% in that department in her win over Linette but was vulnerable on her own serve winning 9 of 23 second serve points (39%). It is an area which Wang will look to attack and will do so with success. These two will trade breaks of serve throughout the match and if it goes the distance, we could see them break serve 5+ times each. Eala has the bigger first serve while Wang…