With the close of the ATP World Championships in London, the competitive tennis betting season is basically on hiatus until the New Year.
With the exception of a few charity events here and there most players are off training or enjoying the holidays with family.
But with just over a month left until the start of the 2011 Australian Open it won’t be much of a break and the upcoming 2011 season promises to be one of the most intriguing we’ve seen in a quite a while.
World #1, Spaniard Rapha Nadal, will start the 2011 tennis odds action the same way he ended the 2010 season –the best player in the world and the #1 seed in the first Slam of the season. Even after losing to World #2 and certain #2 seed at the upcoming Aussie Open, Roger Federer, Nadal is still the man to beat.
If Nadal is able to come out on top of the Aussie Open tennis betting action he’ll not only claim his second Slam Down Under but he’ll have won all 4 Grand Slam events in succession. It’s the same thing as the Tiger Slam in golf, a sweep of all four 4 of the major tournaments, just not in the same calendar year and it would be the closest that anyone has come to sweeping the Slams in the same year since Rod Laver did it years ago.
But Nadal will face plenty of competition in the tennis odds in Melbourne. Aside from Federer who returns as the defending champ, all the top 100 ranked men’s players in the world will be on hand.
World #3 Novak Djokovic will be there and looking to win his second Aussie Slam as well, though conditions will be hot and he often performs very poorly under such conditions.
Andy Murray is also great on the hard surfaces and will be threat to win his first Slam in Australia.
On the ladies side of the draw there’s plenty of excitement as well as World #1 Caroline Wozniacki will top the tennis odds seedlings and look for the first Grand Slam title in Melbourne.
One notable exception in the tennis betting action will be 2-time winner and defending champion, Serena Williams who will miss the start of the 2011 season due to an injury.