Sock – Johnson

Jack Sock will take on fellow American and good friend Steve Johnson in the semifinals at the ATP 250 event in Auckland.

Sock started the year in brilliant fashion with a great run in the semi – friendly Hopman Cup, where he defeated Pavlasek, Lopez and Kyrgios before falling 1-2 to Gasquet in the final. The American played some of his best tennis at times both in the Hopman Cup and here in Auckland. This week Sock defeated Harrison and Chardy, needing a deciding set in each of those matches, but fully deserving to win each of them.

Johnson lost his first match of the year last week in Brisbane against the in form Dimitrov, but he has been excellent so far here in Auckland. Johnson defeated Robert and Lu in straight sets, before also claiming a 2-1 victory over John Isner in the quarters. Johnson conceded only 4 break points in 5 sets of tennis this week, suffering 2 breaks of serve.

The H2H between Sock and Johnson is tied at 3-3, but Johnson did capitalize on a Sock retirement once, so you could argue it`s more like 3-2 for Sock. Interestingly, 4 of the 6 meetings saw a first set tiebreak – though that`s not really surprising considering how the two guys play.

Neither Sock or Johnson are serve bots, but both of them do own big serves and a matchup between them will rarely see many break points. Also, Johnson has a good record against big servers, he`s usually able to push them to tiebreaks, so the 4 first set tiebreaks in 6 H2H meetings are not an accident.

Both guys are playing very well this week and I reckon there will be very little separating them in the early stages of the match. Look for both guys to start careful on serve, try to get in their rhythm and focus on not falling behind early.

I find odds around 3.00 for a bet on a first set tiebreak to be totally unreasonable, my input is that it`s a flip of a coin if we will see a first set tiebreak or not – and if I had to choose, I`d say it`s more likely to have one. My tip is a first set tiebreak to occur. Prediction: Jack Sock – Steve Johnson 6-7 7-6 6-3.

Pick: First set tiebreak – Yes
Odds: 3.10 @ William Hill
Stake: 5
Possible profit: 10.50
Event date: 13 January