Murray exit won’t start trend of shock Indian Wells results
Published:Guillermo Garcia-Lopez provided the shock of the second round at Indian Wells, disposing of Andy Murray, but the likes of Novak Djokovic should ensure that they don’t make such an early exit from the competition, as the Serbian’s 1/33 odds to beat Kevin Anderson prove.
Anderson is 9/1 to pull off a shock victory, but the fact that Djokovic is just 1/8 to win in straight sets is an indication as to the sheer gulf in class between the competitors, and the world number one will make that class show to avoid an upset here.
Although Djokovic appears a certainty to win, more value can be found in Stanislas Wawrinka’s 4/7 odds to beat Frenchman Gilles Simon, who is 5/4 for victory.
In the previous two ATP meetings of the players, Wawrinka has a 100% record, triumphing most recently in straight sets at the 2010 Shanghai Masters.
The Swiss is a decent 6/4 to win 2-0 here too, a bet that looks good considering the patchy form of his opponent, who struggled when scraping past Dudi Sela in round two.
Elsewhere, Mardy Fish will have the opportunity to improve on what has been an indifferent season so far, at 1/5 to overcome Matthew Ebden.
Whilst 24-year-old Australian Ebden has shown encouraging signs with his recent tennis, American Fish, ranked eighth in the world, is beginning to step up after a lacklustre start to the year, and can further progress after disposing of Andreas Seppi on Saturday.
Meanwhile, in the biggest-name clash of the third round, Andy Roddick meets Tomas Berdych, with the number seven seed Czech 1/3 favourite to conquer the 9/4 American.
Each player progressed to this stage with three-set victories, and it is 11/4 that the hard-hitting Berdych scores a 2-1 win here, which looks an attractive proposition.
