Australian Open men’s singles round 4: Murray, Djokovic, Federer feature

Sam Barnard, Assistant Sports Editor | January 23, 2016

2016 Australian Open

Murray to break Aussie hearts

Andy Murray dropped his first set of the 2016 Australian Open in the last round against Joao Sousa, but in the end it was a mere glitch as he ran through to win 6-2 3-6 6-2 6-2.

Now, the British number one (1/16 match favourite with Coral) goes up against home hope Bernard Tomic (8/1), who he loves to play having won all three of their meetings without losing a single set.

There are no other Aussies left in the men’s singles draw, though Daria Gavrilova is still in the women’s section, so no doubt the home crowd will get behind their man to help him as much as possible.

Tomic, therefore, is 11/4 to lose but still claim a set, while Murray is 9/2 to go all the way and lift the title.

Young pretenders flop once again

Supposed rising stars Grigor Dimitrov and Nick Kyrgios suffered third round exits at the hands of 30s plus pair Roger Federer and Tomas Berdych, who have now both been rewarded with more favourable fixtures.

All-time great and four-time Australian Open champion Federer (1/20) next takes on David Goffin (9/1), who has proved to be a consistent player in recent years but lacking the edge to be amongst the elite.

Federer has won all three of their meetings, though dropped two sets out of nine played. The Swiss is, therefore, 11/4 to beat the Belgian 3-1.

Berdych (2/7), meanwhile, is up against Spain’s Roberto Bautista (11/4), who knocked out another promising player in Marin Cilic.

This match has the potential to go the distance, with the Czech leading just 3-2 in head-to-heads and losing 2-1 on hard courts. But back Berdych at 11/2 to edge it in five.

Flurry of Frenchmen left in draw

A total of three French players feature in the men’s singles 4th round, more than any other nation, and it is the highly-talented but injury prone Gael Monfils who has the best chance of making it through.

The 23rd seed duels with Russian Andrey Kuznetsov (3/1 match chance) for a place in the quarters, uncharted territory for both in the Australian Open, and is the heavy 1/4 favourite.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (evens), meanwhile, will be hoping to take confidence from his last battle against Kei Nishikori (4/5), when he won in last year’s French Open quarter-final, despite being 4-2 behind in head-to-heads.

Only once in those meetings have this duo not gone the distance, including twice in Grand Slams and once in this tournament in 2012 at this same stage. Therefore, take tasty odds of 5/2 for this to go over 4.5 sets.

Gilles Simon (14/1) is the other Frenchman left, though is up against defending champion and top seed Novak Djokovic (1/50) next, and practically has no chance of causing an upset.

Crunch clashes in bottom half of draw

Elsewhere, one potential future Grand Slam winner, Milos Raonic (11/8), could cause a slight upset against former champion Stan Wawrinka (4/7).

The Swiss number two may have won all four of their duels, and lost just one set, but the Canadian has looked in top form this tournament so far and reached the quarters last year.

There could be another tight match-up between David Ferrer (1/2) and John Isner (13/8), who are both battlers. The Spaniard, though, has won six of their seven head-to-heads, and so is 5/1 to triumph 3-2.

Related

We’ll be providing wall-to-wall betting coverage of the Australian Open in our tennis section.

Coral’s top tip: Tsonga and Nishikori nearly always go the distance in their clashes, so back this match to go over 4.5 sets at 5/2.