ATP Brisbane Preview 2019
Some of the game’s heavy hitters are warming up in Australia ahead of the Australian Open 2019. While the world number one Novak Djokovic is out in Qatar, Rafael Nadal is the headlining act of the ATP Brisbane action and he is the 9/4 outright favourite* (betting odds taken from bet365 on December 30th, 2018 at 4:45 pm). Britain’s Andy Murray makes his return to action in this one.
ATP Brisbane Odds*
Rafael Nadal 9/4
Kei Nishikori 9/2
Andy Murray 7/1
Nick Kyrgios 8/1
Grigor Dimitrov 9/1
Milos Raonic 10/1
Kyle Edmund 11/1
Daniil Medvedev 14/1
Alex De Minaur 18/1
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 25/1
50/1 bar
* (betting odds taken from bet365 on December 30th, 2018 at 4:45 pm)
ATP Brisbane Preview
After having to pull out of the ATP World Tour Finals at the end of the 2018 season Rafael Nadal gets back into action here. He gets a bit of a tricky test to open things with as well as he could face Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in his opening match. Nadal starts in the second round in Brisbane as he is one of the top seeds. He is actually the number one seed for the event to be precise.
This is his second attempt at the Queensland tournament. In his first attempt, he made the quarter finals in 2017, not dropping a set along the way until he was dumped out by Milos Raonic. The tournament will be Nadal’s first since pulling out of his US Open semi-final against Juan Martin del Potro back in September. So it will be interesting to see how his comeback goes after his injury problems at the back end of last season.
Also making a comeback is Andy Murray. He is up in the same half of Nadal? Murray is a two-time winner of the ATP Brisbane tournament. Murray holds an unbeaten 9-0 record in Queensland but of course, the likelihood is that it will tumble in this edition with Murray having played so little tennis during the 2018 season. It’s a long way back to the top for him. He would have to go through players like Milos Raonic and fourth seed Daniil Medvedev to reach Nadal in the semi finals.
Britain’s Kyle Edmund is the third seed and starts with a first-round bye. He has a decent looking quarter ahead of him actually if he can get his game going. He kind of fell away over the second half of last season before landing his first Tour title at the European Open in October. Australia’s Nick Kyrgios opposes him in the third quarter. Kyrgios is the defending champion in Brisbane actually and that will be a big showdown if they meet in the final eight.
There could also be a big quarter final showdown in the fourth quarter of the draw with second seed Kei Nishikori in the running down there. He was a losing finalist in the 2017 edition of the tournament so has a bit of history there. In that 2017 final it was Dimitrov who Nishikori lost against so that could be an interesting meeting if the two get to go against each other again.
Prediction
It is so early in the season and with two for the big guns in the field in Nadal and Murray working their way back to fitness and match sharpness, it could be worth looking down the field a little bit. Nishikori and Dimitrov have decent history in the tournament and Nishikori looks pretty solid value to make a run at the title as 9/2 second-favourite* (betting odds taken from bet365 on December 30th, 2018 at 4:45 pm).
