Australian Open 2019 Preview – January 25th, 2019 at 8:00 am
Novak Djokovic moved ahead to the final four of the Australian Open after his quarter-final opponent Kei Nishikori withdrew from their match. Djokovic will be taking on a surprise semifinalist in Lucas Pouille who had never won a match at the Australian Open for this season.
Novak Djokovic v Lucas Pouille odds*
Novak Djokovic 1/20
Lucas Pouille 10/1
* (betting odds taken from bet365 on January 13th, 2019 at 11:27 pm)
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Tournament favourite Novak Djokovic was 6-1 4-1 up in his quarterfinal match against Nishikori before he was handed the walk over with his opponent retiring. Whilst cruel on Nishikori, it is a big boost for Djokovic who gets an extra bit of rest now ahead of this semi-final showdown against Pouille. Throughout the tournament, Djokovic has dropped just the two sets and each time he did he responded in emphatic fashion.
Djokovic has won the Australian Open six times before in his career and he is looking to get back to the final for the first time in 2016. Incidentally, he has won every Australian Open final that he has played in. He has never lost a semifinal match at Melbourne Park either. A Djokovic 3-0 result in set betting is at 4/9 odds* (betting odds taken from bet365 on January 23rd, 2019 at 10:13 pm).
Who is Lucas Pouille? The Frenchman who had made five appearances at the Australian Open prior to this year and had lost every match played. So the fact that the 24-year-old is now within touching distance of the Final is crazy. He pulled off a big upset in the quarters as he took out Milos Raonic who looked as if he himself was onto something really good at the tournament.
But Pouille dug in there to knock out the sixteen seed in a great scrap. The way that Pouille fought back in the fourth set after losing the third, was impressive. It looked as if Raonic may have been getting momentum back but Pouille shut it down. In each of his last four rounds of action, Pouille has been through two tie break sets in each of his matches. Some of them really long nose as well.
Head to head
This will be the first-ever meeting between Djokovic and Pouille
Prediction
What a run Pouille has put together. He has shown plenty of grit and stamina and has put in a lot of time on court with some epic matches. But still, he hasn’t met anything like Novak Djokovic. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Djokovic sweep it 3-0 at 4/9 odds* (betting odds taken from bet365 on January 23rd, 2019 at 10:13 pm), especially with the extra bit of rest under his belt.
