Tennis
2019-01-14 - Grigor Dimitrov vs Janko Tipsarevic
A Sports Betting Pick by FirstDown
Tennis: Australian Open First Round
Monday 14th January 2018 - Scheduled 12pm
British Time: 1am
Preview
A once strong career has been much more difficult for Janko Tipsarevic over the last few years as injuries have prevented him from really competing as much as he would have liked. He missed the entire 2018 season after ending 2017 after the US Open and for a little while it sounded like the Serbian player would have to call time on his career.
Instead there was some positive news in December after yet another surgery and Tipsarevic announced he would return to the Tour on a Protected Ranking to play at the Australian Open. Playing the first competitive tennis for almost eighteen months is going to be very challenging for Tipsarevic and the conditions will sap energy that much quicker which makes it very difficult to imagine he stays competitive throughout this First Round encounter.
He does have a good record against Grigor Dimitrov from their previous meetings, but the last of those was some time ago now and almost certainly irrelevant to how the two players will feel going onto the court.
2018 was not a very good year for Dimitrov who was expected to use the win at the ATP World Tour Finals at the end of 2017 to take the next step in his career. Personally I think his window to win a Grand Slam tournament may have closed already, and some of the Dimitrov numbers on the hard courts were very worrying in the last twelve months which suggests he could be in decline already.
A Quarter Final to open the 2019 season will help the confidence, but Dimitrov was a player I was looking to avoid/oppose early in the tournament until this draw was made.
I would expect one set to be pretty competitive because Tipsarevic always had talent, but Dimitrov showed better signs on the return of serve in Brisbane and one of his better tournaments last year came at the Australian Open. I can't imagine how Tipsarevic will be able to maintain his levels throughout this one and once he dips Dimitrov should have the opportunities to produce a couple of clear set wins.
It is a big number, especially for someone who hasn't played to a strong level for some time now, but I will back Dimitrov to cover this one at odds against.
Prediction
Lay the games with the favourite.
The Pick :
Grigor Dimitrov 3-0 Janko Tipsarevic
