Australian Open - Day 2

A good start to the first slam of the year yesterday with a clutch of winners at 8/11 and 5/6. Let's hope for some more tonight.

We've already tipped Roberto Bautista-Agut in our antepost selections, and we reckon he's worth backing to dispatch Fernando Verdasco in the first round, albeit at a relatively short price.

The younger of the pair (Bautista Agut) is ranked 16th on Hard Courts, compared to Verdasco who is 77th and a look at their hard court stats against Top 100 players shows the reasons. While Bautista Agut wins 41.6% of receiving points, Verdasco is a full 4% lower at 37.1%. In games won on fine margin, that's more than enough to start milking the Bautista Agut cow now in case he hasn't got enough to reach the semi-finals for the antepost payout.

2.25pts Bautista Agut to beat Verdasco at 4/9 (General)

Our next pick is Sam Querrey in a battle of the big servers when he meets Feliciano Lopez. Both know how to power them down, but once the ball is in play, it is Querrey who should be the more capable man, and that could be vital if it comes to tie-breaks, which it very well might.

Although Lopez has a 6-3 head to head advantage, the majority of those matches came as Querrey was breaking through and finding his way, so we're happy to overlook that.

Lopez won just 28.3% of return points against Top 100 players on hard courts last season - Querrey managed a more usual 36.6%, and in there lies the important stat given their similar serve statistics. Querrey is a great bet at 8/11.

3.3pts Querrey to beat Lopez at 8/11

Experience meets relative youth (and a hugely apt name) when Jeremy Chardy plays Tennys Sandgren, and we're backing the Frenchman in this one.

Chardy recorded a combined Serve %+Receive % of 101.3% against Top 100 players on hard courts last season, compared to just 93.7% for Sandgren, and coming into this off mostly Challengers will be a big ask for the American.

He just doesn't look to have a strong enough serve to work effectively against the all round game of Chardy and we reckon the 4/5 on the Frenchman represents decent value.

1pt Chardy to beat Sandgren at 4/5

Finally, Evgeny Donskoy is a confidence pick to down Florian Mayer, with the German seemingly on the way out and dropping down the rankings now he's closer to 40 than 30.

Looking at Top 100 Hard Court matches in 2017, the Russian won 66.1% of service points (60.6 for Mayer) and 33.4% of receiving points (29.9% for Mayer). Combined that delivers a full 10% advantage over the German and that usually means a comfortable victory.

3pts Donksoy to beat F Mayer at 4/6

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