Australian Open Tennis
Having dominated men's tennis through most of the Noughties, Roger Federer was a reliable choice for many spread punters who got with him along the way, and he shows little sign of slowing-up as the ATP Tour moves into a new decade.
The Swiss is the Australian Open jolly and likely to gain much support from Sporting Index's tennis traders having been crowned champion in 2004, 2006 and 2007. Spread buyers of his outright index will be encouraged by the fact that he ended 2009 as the world's best-ranked player for the fifth time in six years. Furthermore, spread sellers looking to oppose him in the same market will do so despite knowing that he begins a new calendar year defending two Grand Slams - the French Open and Wimbledon - the 14th and 15th Majors of his career.
Spread bettors selling his championship index will instead point to the fact that the 28-year-old right-hander has not been champion at Melbourne Park since overcoming Chile's Fernando Gonzalez in 2007. He also lost last year's final to great rival Rafael Nadal and, furthermore, 'FedEx' last won a hard court Slam when he beat Andy Murray at Flushing Meadows at the 2008 US Open.
Nadal will also attract a lot of attention, with last year's maiden victory in Melbourne tempting some spread buyers to have another wager on the current world number two. Sellers of the Spaniard's spreads are likely to be mindful of his injury-plagued twelve months last time out, although they will have seen that he made the final of the recent Qatar Open and looked in better shape towards the end of 2009.
The man who claimed that prize in the Middle East, Nikolay Davydenko, also beat Federer on his way to the title - a repeat of the feat he managed in bagging the season-ending ATP World Tour finals in November 2009. The gritty Russian will have gained the backing of many spread buyers ahead of the calendar's first Major with those performances - notably both were on hard surfaces too.
Surprise finalists have been a feature of the Australian Open in recent times and buyers of Davydenko's championship index will hope that he can join the likes of Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, Marcos Baghdatis, Rainer Schuettler and Arnaud Clement in reaching the final on Sunday 31st January. With 50 points for winning a Grand Slam, 25 for being runner-up and 10 for reaching a semi-final, he may also be one that spread buyers take a look at in Sporting Index's men's Grand Slam performance market at a buying price of 16.
Scotland's Andy Murray was seeded fourth for last year's tournament and is likely to be among the favourites this time out too. Sellers of his spreads will, though, have noted his poor record here, realising that he has never progressed beyond the round of 16 in four previous attempts. The same spread sellers will also be aware of the fact that he has been knocked out in the first round in two of his visits here too.
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