ATP Masters Tennis Betting at Indian Wells

Thank goodness for bwin.com! The title does suggest that you have to go to Indian Wells to place your sports bets on the Tennis matches but you simply need to log on to bwin.com and click on Tennis and from there all the Tennis betting choices are laid out neatly for you in their sports betting interface.

We are going to focus on the men’s tournament in this article, which features Andy Roddick, Andy Murray, Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer. Here are my stand-out bets for this evening’s action, with the start times estimated by bwin.com (GMT). The matches are on Eurosport if you want to stay up and watch the action live!

8.00pm Andy Murray 1/100 versus Michael Russell 10/1

Due to the tournament being in the early stages most of the outright betting odds do not offer any value so our search takes us into the special betting odds. An interesting bet offered by bwin.com here is “who will win the most games in the match?” Murray has a -5.5 handicap and odds of 63/100. That means he must win a total of 6 or more games than Russell when the match ends e.g. 7-5 6-1 or 6-3 6-2. This should happen I think as Russell is 31 years old, has been a pro for 12 years and his career high ranking is only 222 achieved back in 2001. Murray should fine this match comfortable but Russell is a dogged competitor who will surely relish one more shot at a top player. Once Murray gets ahead, however, it should be straight forward for him.

11.00pm Nicholas Almagro 199/100 versus James Blake 7/50

James Blake has shown signs of re-emerging as a top player recently beating 13th side David Ferrer 6-1 6-4 in a tournament recently. He faces Almagro who is a seasoned player who has recently beaten Richard Gasquet. Almagro is an offensive baseline player who when on form hits plenty of winners. The best bet on offer in the special betting is for Almagro NOT to win a set in the match at 11/10. This is a decent bet in my opinion as if both players are at their best I do believe Blake would win in straight sets, but this match will certainly be competitive. With Blake dropping to 44 in the official world rankings Almagro fans may like the outright 199/100 for him to win the match.

11.00pm Roger Federer 1/20 versus Marcos Baghdatis 27/4

Although Baghdatis is a good player I think it is a fairly safe bet, even at 1/20, that Federer will prevail. There are two other bets that strike me as interesting in the special betting and that is the 9/20 that Baghdatis will not win a set and the 1/1 with a -5.5 handicap that Federer will win more than five games than Baghdatis. I would expect a one-sided score line particularly if Federer starts strongly and 9/20 for a straight sets Federer win is the best we could hope for. There is a huge skill gap between the players and this should be reflected in the match score as Federer rarely struggles in the early part of any tournament.

The next Grand Slam in the Tennis calendar is the French Open where Rafa Nadal is 3/2 to win the tournament currently. I do not think Rafa has done that much recently and is not quite the formidable player he once was. Federer will defend his title and is currently a healthy 57/20 to win. I would back Federer at the moment who looks a man at ease with what he has achieved but he wants more. If he wins this week and Nadal suffers another unexpected defeat I think this price will drop so get on early if you think Federer can repeat his success at the French Open. Remember he has made the last five finals!

By Malcolm Clarke