Australian Open Tennis Betting 2012
The 2012 Australian Open will be the 100th edition of the prestigious event. It is, as ever, the first Grand Slam event of the tennis season and there are six different competitions taking place including the men’s singles, women’s singles and doubles events. The Australian Open 2012 is scheduled to begin on January 16 and conclude a fortnight later on January 29 at its traditional Melbourne Park venue.
The event is set to offer the highest prize money in the sport’s history. A total prize pool of million will be split between the events, with the men’s and women’s champions netting a record .3 million each.
Novak Djokovic is the men’s defending champion and Kim Clijsters the women’s. The 2012 men’s singles champion will receive a commemorative coin to mark the milestone of being the 100th Australian Open tennis champion.
Australian Open Men’s Betting 2012
Since Marat Safin won the 2005 Australian Open only one man – Juan Martin del Potro – outside of tennis’s ‘big three’ – Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal – has won a Grand Slam tennis title. Therefore, it will come as no surprise to Tennis Betting regulars to learn that it is these three men that head the Australian Open Tennis Betting 2012 markets.
There, Britain’s Andy Murray, who has finished runner-up in each of the last two Aussie Opens, joins them. Beaten by world number one Novak Djokovic in 2011 and 16-time Grand Slam winner Roger Federer in 2010, the Scot goes into the 2012 event as the fourth favourite in the betting.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was the last player outside of the current world top four to make the Australian Open final. Back in 2008 he lost the final in four sets to Djokovic, the Frenchman is generally sixth-favourite in the betting ahead of the event. Juan Martin del Potro is fourth-favourite as he hopes to rediscover the form he showed prior to a wrist injury that kept him out of action for the best part of a year.
Australian Open Women’s Betting 2012
Kim Clijsters won the 2011 Australian Open but does not defend her title as one of the betting favourites with the bookmakers. The Belgian beat Li Na in the 2011 final but subsequently suffered from a spate of injuries that forced her to miss the most part of the 2011 season. After pulling out of the US Open she announced on her blog that she would be dropping the remainder of the season in order to regain fitness ahead of the 2012 campaign. Fitness and form concerns mean that she is available at double figure betting odds to retain her title.
Instead, it is Serena Williams that is made the Australian Open Tennis Betting 2012 favourite to lift the title. The American won three out of four Australian Open’s between 2007 and 2010, including back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010. Injury meant that she was unable to defend her title last year and she is now the strong favourite to regain the title. 2011 Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova is the second favourite in the betting, followed by Belarussian Victoria Azarenka, home crowd favourite Samantha Stosur and world number one Caroline Wozniacki.
Aussie Open Betting Markets
Australian Open betting offers the same markets as other Grand Slam markets throughout the year. The outright winners market is accompanied by reach the final, name the finalists and top nationality markets in those that last the duration of the tournament.
Individual match markets are available on every match from the first round through to the final on both the men’s and women’s side of the tournament. Punters can bet on anything from the winner, set score and handicap markets to the number of Aces served, double faults and games played.