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Very interesting matchup in the second round of the Australian Open between highly rated, big-serving Milos Raonic and in-form romanian Victor Hanescu. It could be a closer than expected encounter with some very interesting betting options to choose from.
Raonic (11 ATP) is coming after the best season of his career and he can break the top 10 with a decent performance here in Melbourne. However, Milos does not seem to be in his best form at the moment, finishing the last few tournaments last year rather poorly and showing a lot of shortcomings in his first match here in Australia. Maybe because he didn`t play prior to the Australian Open, he was a little rusty in the first round, he lost a set to Gimeno-Traver and could have even lost two. On the other hand, he did show flashes of his best self in the 7-6 6-1 4-6 6-2 win. All in all, it was a usual huge-serving performance from the canadian, with moments of solid baseline play but also a lot of unforced errors at time.
Romanian no. 1 Victor Hanescu (76 ATP) is a claycourter with good potential on hard, but in the last year / year and a half his performances on fast courts have been seriously declining. It came as a big surprise the fact that Victor showed some excellent form so far this year, reaching the quarters at Doha (def. Sousa, Verdasco, lost a thriller with Mayer) and advancing to the second round here in Melbourne by easily dispatching Doha semifinalist, the in-form Gojowczyk (7-6 7-6 6-3). Looks like Hanescu had a solid preparation prior to this season, a thing which he actually stated on social media, because he is moving well, hitting the ball with confidence and serving at his best (which is no small thing, considering Hanescu is 1.98m tall).
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The two players met two times with the H2H tied at 1-1. Both meetings were on hard, Hanescu winning in 2010 in the Canadian Masters (6-4 6-4) and Raonic demolishing the Romanian in 2012 at Chennai, 6-1 6-4.
Surely Raonic is the better player here and I expect him to win this match one way or the other, but the way things are looking right now, he will get a stern challenge from Hanescu. Victor`s solid serve will surely keep him close to Milos in every set, considering that the canadian is a poor returner, but I can also see the romanian taking advantage of the blackouts that Raonic has over the course of every match – especially now that he is not in top form and it is early in the tournament, when he won`t give it 100%. Hanescu has been so stable and consistent so far this year, few unforced errors, he has the form, the experience and the game to challenge the canadian – particularly when Milos is still rusty. I expect tiebreaks here, and I reckon Victor has good chances to take on of those tiebreaks – after all an inferior Gimeno Traver (at the moment) took a set from the canadian. Raonic could win this in 4, something like 6-3 6-7 6-4 7-6.
Handicap on the romanian, over 35.5 games, over 3 sets, all look like good choices but out of all betting options I will pick the game handicap in case Milos wins in in three. Three close sets are more likely than 4 lopsided ones. A score like 7-6 6-3 6-4 would return our stakes, and this looks like the worst case scenario, as I can never see Milos Raonic winning this match by a bigger margin taking all factors into account. Big stakes.
Pick: Hanescu +6
Odds: 1.92 @ Pinnacle
Stake: 9
Possible profit: 8.28
Event date: 16 January
Editor Facts
- Rostick is 1 for 2 in tips on the Australian Open
