Australian Open Day 1 Picks 2013 (January 14th)

The first Grand Slam of the tennis season will be starting today and these will be my picks from the first day of the tournament.

For those interested, you can see my outright preview of the Men's and Women's Tournaments and outright picks here

Hopefully this will be the start of a strong two weeks with plenty of good matches for us to enjoy.


Lleyton Hewitt v Janko Tipsarevic: Lleyton Hewitt is certainly not the player of past years anymore, but I think there is a chance that he can cause one of the surprises of the First Round by knocking off Janko Tipsarevic in the evening session opener.

Hewitt had a couple of really good performances in the Kooyong exhibition ahead of this tournament and he has clearly been feeling a little confident after holding his own when hitting with Roger Federer.

However, the bigger reason may just be that Janko Tipsarevic had to retire with a wrist injury last week and has not really produced his best tennis in Melbourne in the past. Those slight doubts can be exposed by Hewitt who pushed Novak Djokovic here with home support last season and I think he can bring in the upset so I'll have a small interest in him to do so.


John Millman - 4.5 games v Tatsuma Ito: These two players met a couple of weeks ago and John Millman was a comfortable winner and there could be more of the same for the Australian in his first appearance in the main draw at Grand Slam level.

Millman has shown some decent signs in the first two weeks of the season, pushing Andy Murray to three sets before losing and he dominated Tatsuma Ito when they met two weeks ago.

Ito was also comfortably beaten in qualifying for the tournament in Sydney last week and I don't think he has shown the form to suggest he turns around the result from two weeks ago in this one.


Grigor Dimitrov - 2.5 games v Julien Benneteau: Julien Benneteau is definitely a tough competitor and someone that can use all his experience in matches, but this could be Grigor Dimitrov's time to excel at Grand Slam level and I think he will have enough to see off his older opponent.

Dimitrov has beaten Benneteau twice previously so he won't be unaware of what is being brought to the table and he did reach his first Final on the ATP Tour just a couple of weeks ago. That should give him confidence to see off the Frenchman who is generally inconsistent on the hard courts.

I think Dimitrov will likely need 4 sets to win the match, but that should be enough for him to cover this spread.


Marion Bartoli - 3.5 games v Anabel Medina Garrigues: Marion Bartoli has dominated the meetings between these two players, especially on the hard courts where Bartoli has won all 5 meetings between them and hasn't dropped a set in those matches.

I feel Bartoli is a little more consistent in her game and that is why Anabel Medina Garrigues has struggled against her, particularly on the faster surfaces where the more aggressive nature of the Frenchwoman is clear.

I would expect Bartoli to win this one without dropping a set and that should see her cover this spread.

MY PICKS: Lleyton Hewitt @ 2.40 Pinnacle (1 Unit)
John Millman - 4.5 Games @ 1.85 Pinnacle (2 Units)
Grigor Dimitrov - 2.5 Games @ 1.92 Pinnacle (2 Units)
Marion Bartoli - 3.5 Games @ 1.80 Pinnacle (2 Units)