The Australian open resumes with exciting 3rd round matches tonight.
Dinara Safina and Kim Clijsters are both in action tonight and here's a look at their matches and their odds.
Dinara Safina vs Elena Baltacha Australian Open 2010
The 2010 Australian Open has already delivered a ton of quality action and the best rounds are still to come.
Many tennis fans will not know who Elena Baltacha is but she is a veteran on the women's tour. She is 26 years old and her third round appearance in Australia ties her best Slam performance. She appeared to have more potential a number of years ago when she made the third round of Wimbledon at the age of 18.
Now she's probably just delighted to still be remaining in the Melbourne draw and to be playing in Rod Laver Arena.
Head to head Baltacha and her opponent, Dinara Safina, have never met but Safina has come in as a crushing favorite. bet365 have given her credit with odds of -1400 (1/14), a price that most responsible punters won't bother with.
The bad news with this match for straight-up calls is that you pretty much have to bet Baltacha for the upset just because -1400 on Safina won't return near enough to make things interesting. However, there is at least a little bit of hope for Baltacha.
Firstly, Safina was dropping matches to people ranked outside of the top 200 not too long ago. She appears to be over that bout of bad play but you can hope that she's still vulnerable to the upset.
Secondly, Baltacha is currently ranked 83rd in the world and that is her career high mark. Players at a personal high for their career ranking are generally good bets to make because in order to surge in the ranks, you have to play ABOVE your ranking. Baltacha may be playing more like a top 60 player right now and she took out a seeded player in the second round in Kateryna Bondarenko, a US Open quarterfinalist from 2009, pretty easily.
Baltacha's odds of +650 (13/2) with Boylesports may have just a little bit of value but don't bet them too hard as she's kind of fuzzy.
Our recommendation is either to sprinkle Baltacha or don't bet this match at all for a straight up pick as Safina's odds are just out to lunch.
Go to bet365 to bet on Australian Open.
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Kim Clijsters vs Nadia Petrova Australian Open 2009
Clijsters is undefeated against Petrova.
Kim Clijsters, career-wise, has gone 4-0 against Nadia Petrova and there has not really been a close match played between the two. Petrova has only ever taken one set off of Clijsters but the two have not played one another since 2005.
They will meet in third round action from the Australian Open on Friday (Australian time, Thursday night/Friday morning in North America) and Clijsters has come in as a big favorite (-1000, 1/10; bet365).
But Petrova, priced at +550 (11/2) to win, just isn't as bad as the odds make her seem, even against Clijsters. She lost in Brisbane a couple weeks ago in the first round but it was against Justine Henin and both sets played were close.
Also, Petrova has been to the 4th round of the Australian Open in 4 of the last 5 years and that includes a quarterfinals appearance.
Toward the end of last season she had a big victory over Serena Williams in Beijing that involved winning a clutch third set tiebreaker and Petrova is probably a little bit more dangerous against Clijsters than +550 suggests.
However, while neither player has lost a set yet at this year's Aussie, Clijsters is dominating her opponents much more convincingly and she is very hard to bet against.
Our recommendation is to bet this match with bet365's "Set Betting" feature and take Clijsters to win 2-1 at +333 (about 33/10).
Go to bet365 to bet on Australian Open tennis.
