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Tomas Berdych will continue his Australian Open campaign with big hopes against the big serving, 2.03m tall frenchman, Kenny De Schepper (86 ATP).
Berdych did not end the 2013 season in his best form (for his standards), and the start of 2014 found him again out of rhythm with a 1st round loss at Doha against Ivo Karlovic. However, one would expect the Czech to focus better at the Australian Open and reach the latter stages of the tournament. He defeated Nedovyesov 6-3 6-4 6-3 in the first round at Melbourne.
De Schepper is a solid top 100 player, big server, nothing special. His height and powerful first ball ar by far his main advantages. Kenny lost his only match this season prior to Melbourne in the first round of qualies at Sydney against Stakhovsky (6-7 4-6), but as it turned out the ukrainean had an amazing tournament, so the loss will not have hurt De Schepper too much. Here at the Australian Open, De Schepper gained a solid 7-5 7-5 7-6 win against Di Wu. He gave up 13 break points, which was dissapointing, but conceded only 2 breaks of serve and he should be more focused against Berdych.
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The H2H is 0-0, the two players never met before on the tour. While there can hardly be any questionmarks about the winner here, Berdych to win being the obvious pick, the handicap the bookies are giving on this one is a little disrespectful towards De Schepper – it`s no wonder the odds on him to cover +8 are dropping. Berdych is not in top form, he just lost to another big-server in his last match (Karlovic) and he surely won`t give it 100% in just his second match here in Melbourne. A player of his caliber knows how to save energy in the first rounds. Kenny has a strong serve that will give him a lot of free points and with Berdych not a top returner, De Schepper should be able to hold most of his service games. I expect Tomas to focus on his own serve (which he should hold easily), not put too much effort on the return (knowing he faces a top server) and maybe try one break per set, or raise his level in the tiebreak.
I can see something like 7-6 6-3 6-4 for the Czech here and my pick is De Schepper to cover the +8 games handicap. Tomas won by exactly 8 games in the previous round against Nedovyesov, who is nowhere near close to De Schepper in terms of serving, and a weaker player overall. As I said, the odds are going down and the line is migrating towards 7,5.
Pick: De Schepper +8
Odds: 1.83 @ Pinnacle
Stake: 7
Possible profit: 5.81
Event date: 15 January
Editor Facts
- Rostick is 1 for 1 in tips on the Australian Open
