Aside from Rafael Nadal getting bounced out of the first round of the Australian Open, for the most part, the major chalk has held up on the men's side of the draw.
There's still a ton left to be decided in the final week of this tournament though, in spite of the fact that the odds haven't changed a ton.
Australian Open Betting Odds at BookMaker.eu
Novak Djokovic -185
Andy Murray +550
Roger Federer +850
Stanislas Wawrinka +935
Milos Raonic +2800
Tomas Berdych +4000
Kei Nishikori +5500
Gael Monfils +8000
Bernard Tomic +10000
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga +10000
David Ferrer +12500
John Isner +17500
David Goffin +35000
Roberto Bautista-Agut +35000
Gilles Simon +45000
Andrey Kuznetsov +50000
The fact of the matter is that the only quadrant which could've been problematic to try to forecast was the one with Nadal and Stanislas Wawrinka. That prospective quarterfinals match would've been interesting to follow, though now, Andrey Kuznetsov, an unranked Russian is in the spot that Nadal would've been in.
That's really good news for Gael Monfils, especially at a price of 80 to 1 for him to win the Australian Open. Granted, there are still a lot of hurdles at this point for the Frenchman to overcome, but he really should make his way into the quarters at this point, and it's entirely possible that Milos Raonic could dismiss Wawrinka in the fourth round. Any choice in that bracket could be a decent choice, knowing that the winner of it could end up with a very unpredictable foe in the semifinals.
The reason for the concern about the men in the third quadrant is that the fourth quadrant has had nothing but chalk literally the whole way.
Murray has generally had a relatively easy road to reach the first weekend of the Aussie Open, but all of a sudden, the challenges are going to get a lot bigger. Bernard Tomic is going to be up on Saturday night, and assuming that Murray gets past that hurdle, he'll either have to take on the top American man, John Isner or the best Spaniard left in the field, David Ferrer. Either one of these men could provide a huge problem for Murray, and that's why the Brit is the man we'd probably want to back the least on the board of the 32 left standing coming into the weekend.
As far as the top seeds, Djokovic and Federer haven't seen a lot of hassle thus far Down Under. Djokovic hasn't dropped a set and has only faced two tiebreakers along the way. Federer dropped just one set, that coming in the third round to Grigor Dimitrov, who has one of the biggest serves in the world.
Federer has had the benefit of playing against some of the best servers in the middling ranks of the ATP Tour, and that could really come in handy later on down the line.
Djokovic certainly has the tougher of the two routes to get to the final for sure. Odds have it, he's going to have to go through Gilles Simon, the up and coming Kei Nishikori and Federer just to reach Murray or whomever comes out of the bottom half of the draw on the last day of the tournament.
Federer, in fact, might have the easiest road to reach the Australian Open Final. He's got David Goffin, who might be up and coming, but certainly isn't on Federer's level in the fourth round, and we don't forecast with Roberto Bautista Agut or Tomas Berdych challenging him in the quarterfinals either.
Though it's amazing to think that you have to go back to 2010 to find the last time Federer won a Grand Slam event, this might be his best shot to get back in the winners' circle. A price of +850 is fantastic, even if you think the Swiss master has to end up going through both Djokovic and Murray to win it all.
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