Ben Mitchell $2.25 v James Duckworth in Burnie Challenger

Australian James Duckworth made headlines during January, particularly in his home country, for stepping up to ATP level to beat Mahut in Brisbane and then Zopp in Melbourne to make the 2nd Round of the Australian Open.

The Duck drops back to his more familiar Challenger Tour stomping ground this week but I think the bookies are putting a little too much import on those ATP level matches.

Duckworth likes clay, or a slow court generally, and his historic performances on the Burnie track are much less than stellar.

By contrast this is Mitchell's ideal surface and reports suggest he is fired up to remind Duckworth he is not the only young Aussie on the cusp of making the jump to ATP level. (having recently beaten Kukushkin and Mayer during qualifying for the Sydney ATP event)



Benjamin Mitchell $2.25 (+125) vs James Duckworth at 5Dimes

19yo Ben Mitchell Is A Strapping Lad

New Top 100 Rankings after Australian Open. Tomic, Nishikori on the rise.

Two of the three current hot young guns on the tour, Bernard Tomic and Kei Nishikori made a nice jump in their rankings this week to 34th and 20th in the world respectively. Whilst the third, Milos Raonic, lost in the third round to Leyton Hewitt, failing to match his R16 performance last year, so drops 3 spots to 28th.

It has been a big week for Japanese tennis. With Nishikori's quarter final appearance being the furthest a Japanese player has progressed in a Grand Slam event for over 50 years, and now being the first to make the top 20 in that long as well. Along with the rising crop of Japanese players dominating the Honolulu Challenger Tour event with 3 of the 4 semi final positions and tournament win for Soeda. Hopes must be very high in the land of the rising sun for their Davis Cup team playing next week.

Juan Martin Del Potro moves into the top 10 for the first time since he returned from injury at the expense of Nicolas Almagro.

Other noteable big movers are Ivo Karlovic moving up 11 places into the top 50 at 46th, Mikhail Kukushkin up 28 spots to 64th, Taipei's Yen-Hsun Lu up 14 places to 65th and Lukas Lacko moving into the top 100 with a 22 position rise to 97th, also passing 100th ranked Karol Beck to become Slovakia's top ranked male tennis player.


Rank, Name & Nationality     Points     Week Change
1 Djokovic, Novak (SRB)     13,630    0
2 Nadal, Rafael (ESP)     10,435    0
3 Federer, Roger (SUI)     8,010    0
4 Murray, Andy (GBR)     6,900    0
5 Ferrer, David (ESP)     4,565    0
6 Tsonga, Jo-Wilfried (FRA)     4,425    0
7 Berdych, Tomas (CZE)     3,700    0
8 Fish, Mardy (USA)     2,965    0
9 Tipsarevic, Janko (SRB)     2,700    0
10 Del Potro, Juan Martin (ARG)     2,630    1
11 Almagro, Nicolas (ESP)     2,380    -1
12 Simon, Gilles (FRA)     2,005    2
13 Monfils, Gael (FRA)     1,970    2
14 Soderling, Robin (SWE)     1,940    -2
15 Lopez, Feliciano (ESP)     1,890    4
16 Gasquet, Richard (FRA)     1,855    2
17 Isner, John (USA)     1,800    0
18 Dolgopolov, Alexandr (UKR)     1,760    -5
19 Roddick, Andy (USA)     1,745    -3
20 Nishikori, Kei (JPN)     1,680    6
21 Mayer, Florian (GER)     1,585    0
22 Troicki, Viktor (SRB)     1,550    1
23 Cilic, Marin (CRO)     1,485    -3
24 Verdasco, Fernando (ESP)     1,380    0
25 Chela, Juan Ignacio (ARG)     1,350    4
26 Granollers, Marcel (ESP)     1,350    2
27 Wawrinka, Stanislas (SUI)     1,345    -5
28 Raonic, Milos (CAN)     1,345    -3
29 Monaco, Juan (ARG)     1,300    -2
30 Anderson, Kevin (RSA)     1,270    2
31 Stepanek, Radek (CZE)     1,195    0
32 Ljubicic, Ivan (CRO)     1,190    -2
33 Kohlschreiber, Philipp (GER)     1,140    8
34 Tomic, Bernard (AUS)     1,138    4
35 Bogomolov Jr., Alex (RUS)     1,135    -1
36 Benneteau, Julien (FRA)     1,120    3
37 Bellucci, Thomaz (BRA)     1,060    0
38 Dodig, Ivan (CRO)     1,030    -2
39 Youzhny, Mikhail (RUS)     1,025    -4
40 Young, Donald (USA)     1,014    2
41 Melzer, Jurgen (AUT)     1,000    -8
42 Seppi, Andreas (ITA)     980    -2
43 Llodra, Michael (FRA)     960    3
44 Andujar, Pablo (ESP)     955    1
45 Baghdatis, Marcos (CYP)     940    -1
46 Karlovic, Ivo (CRO)     922    11
47 Ferrero, Juan Carlos (ESP)     920    1
48 Fognini, Fabio (ITA)     915    -1
49 Tursunov, Dmitry (RUS)     913    -6
50 Nieminen, Jarkko (FIN)     908    -1
51 Rochus, Olivier (BEL)     899    3
52 Davydenko, Nikolay (RUS)     875    0
53 Montanes, Albert (ESP)     860    -3
54 Giraldo, Santiago (COL)     845    2
55 Berlocq, Carlos (ARG)     836    6
56 Petzschner, Philipp (GER)     815    7
57 Istomin, Denis (UZB)     802    3
58 Starace, Potito (ITA)     800    4
59 Blake, James (USA)     799    0
60 Muller, Gilles (LUX)     793    -5
61 Kubot, Lukasz (POL)     787    -3
62 Haase, Robin (NED)     781    -9
63 Falla, Alejandro (COL)     776    8
64 Kukushkin, Mikhail (KAZ)     768    28
65 Lu, Yen-Hsun (TPE)     741    14
66 Ramos, Albert (ESP)     724    1
67 Stakhovsky, Sergiy (UKR)     710    -2
68 Robredo, Tommy (ESP)     705    -17
69 Machado, Rui (POR)     698    1
70 Volandri, Filippo (ITA)     696    2
71 Gulbis, Ernests (LAT)     695    2
72 Stebe, Cedrik-Marcel (GER)     688    11
73 Sela, Dudi (ISR)     685    2
74 Malisse, Xavier (BEL)     680    -10
75 Cipolla, Flavio (ITA)     680    1
76 Sweeting, Ryan (USA)     676    -8
77 Garcia-Lopez, Guillermo (ESP)     675    -11
78 Mahut, Nicolas (FRA)     673    3
79 Mayer, Leonardo (ARG)     659    1
80 Kunitsyn, Igor (RUS)     657    -6
81 Rosol, Lukas (CZE)     656    -12
82 Chardy, Jeremy (FRA)     652    0
83 Dimitrov, Grigor (BUL)     641    -5
84 Darcis, Steve (BEL)     636    1
85 Ebden, Matthew (AUS)     635    9
86 Nalbandian, David (ARG)     630    1
87 Beck, Andreas (GER)     628    6
88 Soeda, Go (JPN)     625    11
89 Querrey, Sam (USA)     624    6
90 Devvarman, Somdev (IND)     614    -4
91 Kamke, Tobias (GER)     613    7
92 Riba, Pere (ESP)     612    -4
93 Bachinger, Matthias (GER)     602    -4
94 Paire, Benoit (FRA)     601    -10
95 Hanescu, Victor (ROU)     600    -5
96 Harrison, Ryan (USA)     596    -19
97 Lacko, Lukas (SVK)     596    22
98 Roger-Vasselin, Edouard (FRA)     592    3
99 Gil, Frederico (POR)     582    8
100 Beck, Karol (SVK)     576    0

Tatsuma Ito and Yuichi Sugita in Honolulu Challenger Today

Tatsuma Ito comes up against American Kevin Kim. Ito was in good form in Australia where he went 5-2 and made the second round in Melbourne. Kim's two qualifying matches here are his first for this season. A well prepared Ito should be too much for Kim today.

Ito's countryman Yuichi Sugita has made a similar good start to 2012 with a strong showing in Chennai, beating Rochus and Lu before losing to Almagro in 3R. Indian up an comer Yuki Bhambri aslo did well in Chennai, winning against Beck before being losing in straights to Tipsarevic. Bhambri is still a solid Challenger series player but Sugita has stepped up to ATP level now and should make short work of this encounter.

I am parlaying the two Japanese today.

Tatsuma Ito $1.36 (-280)  vs Kevin Kim
Yuichi Sugita $1.20 (-505)  vs Yuki Bhambri

Parlay for $1.63 (-159)

Yuichi Sugita with East Asian Games Gold Medal

Andy Murray v Kei Nishikori Aus Open QF 2012

The diminutive Japanese that never says die, Kei Nishikori, has already done the land of the rising sun proud by making it further in a Grand Slam than any countryman before him. But the Scottish top 4 Andy Murray has looked in winning form, and more importantly, state of mind, only losing 17 games total in the three matches since his shaky first round 4 set win over plucky American Ryan Harrison.

Andy Murray to win it in straight sets today.


A.Murray Wins 3-0 $1.68 (-148)

Kei Nishikori

2012 Australian Open Womens Quarter Finals

Petra Kvitova should dispatch Sara Errani in straight sets today, and go on to win the tournament, but the $1.11 (-895) price on offer is not worth the risk of injury, illness or just a bad day from Kvitova. The games line of 18½ should be enough to take the under, with Petra capable of taking at least one set to 1 or 2 games.

In the second match today giant killer Ekaterina Makarova, who saw off tournament favorite Serena Williams in the round of 16, is sent out at $4.00 (+300) against the screamer and fellow countrywoman, Maria Sharapova.

Sharapova was far from convincing in beating Lisicki in 3 sets late last night, whilst Makarova has had an extra days rest since upsetting Williams on Monday night (local time). On top of that Makarova thrives as the underdog.



Sara Errani/Petra Kvitova Games Won Under 18½ $1.77 (-130)

Ekaterina Makarova $4.10 ( +310)  vs Maria Sharapova

Nadal v Federer Australian Open Semi Final 2012

Nadal has the wood over Federer in terms of their head to head battle in Grand Slam events, with their 2011 meeting here in Australia probably still stinging Roger. But Federer has been in scintillating form and his body is holding up to boot.

Taking Federer @ $1.69 (-145)  and total games played Over 39½ @ $1.85 (-118)