Further Upsets Unlikely Following Federer Oz Exit

Roger Federer`s third round Australian Open exit was undoubtedly the biggest shock of the tournament so far.

The Swiss second seed failed to come from two sets down to defeat Italian Andreas Seppi who finished off the 17-time Grand Slam winner in the fourth set, 6-4, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6.

It was the first time that the player ranked 46th in the world had managed to get the better of Federer in 10 previous meetings and the victory ended a run of 23 games in which he had failed to surpass top 10 opposition. Despite this, Seppi is still best priced 200/1 with a number of bookmakers to pick up his first Grand Slam down under.

He will take on Nick Kyrgios in the fourth round of the tournament tomorrow, a tie in which he finds himself as the outsider once again.

This match-up will only be the second time the pair have met on court with Australian Kyrgios beating his opponent in straight sets in last year`s US Open. Aged only 19 and ranked seven places below Seppi in the world rankings, Kyrgios recorded a 6-4, 7-6, 6-4 victory in only his second year as a professional.

As a result of this form over his rival, and no doubt having the backing of the home crowd, the teenager is the 4/5 favourite (Betvictor, betway) to secure his place in the final eight of the competition. He had previously beaten Federico Delbonis, Ivo Karlovic and Malek Jaziri in his attempts to make his second Grand Slam quarter-final of his career.

It`s 18/5 should you think that Kyrgios will be able to beat his opponent in straight sets again whilst Seppi causing a second upset is available at 5/4 with boylesports. Seppi is yet to win in the Australian Open in straight sets this season and is 5/1 to win in four with the same bookmaker whilst Bwin have priced him up at 6/1 to win in five.

Elsewhere, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal are both hitting the court tomorrow as they, too, look to book themselves a quarter-final place. Murray will have to overcome Grigor Dimitrov whilst Nadal plays Kevin Anderson.

British hope Murray has beaten all of his previous opponents in straight sets and has only been taken to a set tie-break once. That was in the third set of his first round encounter with Indian youngster Yuki Bhambri.

His opponent hasn`t had such an easy ride, needing four sets to take down Slovenian Lukas Lacko in the second stage of the tournament and five sets to dump out the experienced former Australian Open runner-up Marcus Baghdatis of Cyprus. As a result, Murray is the 1/3 favourite (boylesports, Skybet, Stan James) to progress at the expense of the 10th seed, who is 29/10 with betway to break British hearts. Both boylesports and Betway have priced a straight sets victory to the favourite up at 17/10.

It is the same price should you think the tie will be played out over four sets (Betvictor), it is possible to get odds of 17/4 at Bwin on a winner being crowned after five.

The two players have met six times previously with Dimitrov 4-2 down. Murray also holds a superior record on hard with the head-to-head reading 4-1 to Murray on such a surface. The men met three times last year, however, the Bulgarian beating the 27-year-old home hope twice, once in Mexico, the second time in the Wimbledon quarter-finals.

Nadal is 1/3 (Coral, Skybet) to get the better of South African Kevin Anderson, the 3/1 outsider with Boylesports.

Despite being the same age the men have only met in ATP competitions once, the Spaniard ruling over Anderson in straight sets in the 2010 World Tour Masters in Toronto.

These Sunday matches precede the appearance of tournament favourite Novak Djokovic on Monday who is 1/33 across the board to put Giles Muller (14/1 - bet365, ladbrokes) to the sword.

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24/01/2015     © Frixo 2024