amity

Here are the odds and ratings for this upcoming week of action from League 1, League 2, and the Scottish Premiership. Take a look and share your predictions with us below! 

It's hard to build a ranking on hard indoors capacity but Alycia Parks is a speldid indoor hardcourt player and it's no fluke she's beaten Karo Pliskova in Prag on indoor hardcourt and won two 125k hard indoor events.

The early Davis Cup action begins tomorrow, and there are some notable matches drawn (and hopefully to be played) - Zverev against Wawrinka is the main highlight. Noskova is continuing with her cakewalk draw, so I don't think she's worth opposing tomorrow, and I'm afraid of backing Parks, though she looks good to beat Kovinic at first glance.

If only. Would LOVE to see Jimmy win a title. Just seeing him play well is great.

Stevens 2-0 up loses 5-2.
Perry 3-1 up loses 5-3 
Yupeng 3-0 up loses 5-4

Jesus   suppose Wakelin was 3-1 down and won. 
I suppose few of the outright still doing OK. Guodong smashing it tonight with a 100 and 2 50+ breaks. Slessors only frame should have been the top break. Should have went pink and was like 2/3 balls from a century but I'll hope now that Guodong can beat Lisowski and then K.Wilson in that top half.

One more bet for tonights matches. On a sidenote, can't wait to watch Lisowski Vs Jimmy tonight. White is playing some of the best stuff I've seen from him in ages but you just know he's going to get smashed anyway
Guodong plays El Slessor tonight. Guodong is playing some good stuff and overcome Fan Zhengyi 5-4 from 4-3 down. He hit 4 50+ breaks in that match and was pretty solid. That's how I see Guodong really, a solid player who scores alot of 70-100 scores to win frames. I don't see him as a player who hits a whole lot of centuries and in fact in his last 10 matches he has hit just 1. 1 in the last 12 in fact. Don't get me wrong, he wins alot but he tends to "get the job done"
Slessor beat O'Connor 5-2 and hit 2 centuries, including a 115 and a 120. He also hit 2 against Lam in qualifications. Also hit a 142 in his Welsh Open win against Emery last month. I think it's worth siding with Slessor on the Highest Break tonight
2.5pts Slessor (Highest break) Vs Guodong 11/10 bet365

on a sidenote, Yupeng going 3-0 up on Heathcote and losing 5-4 is a disgraceful result.

Wakelin playing like an absolute tool. Just threw the 2nd frame away by trying an impossible swerve to give away a free ball. Absolutely brainless.

No, it's crazy how fast these players go in and out of form. He was useless and Pengfei played good really. Atleast Jimmy turned up for a level day. Hopefully tomorrow brings a profit. I still think a big price has a chance of going far in this event. 

I'm going to take Clayton as a bet for the Premier League. I'm not entirely convinced he should even have been picked but I know that he is determined to show his worth because he was saying so prior to it, at The Masters. If we look back last year at this event, when it was "mini-tournaments" each week, Claytons average was 97.86. He Lost to Cullen in the semi-final, who then went on to miss winning the PL by 1mm. I think at 10/1 he is worth a bet. Not forgetting he also won the Premier League the year prior, in 2021. As a debut. Infact, he is the only player other than MVG to win this, in this field of 8.
2pts e/w J.Clayton to win Premier League 10/1 betvictor
 

What I'd be looking at today is Martic-Parks. Parks had some truly impressive victories at the end of the last season, but it's hard to gauge where she's at right now, as she wasn't impressive in Australia and as her first round win was a bit suspect as well. Martic is still the better player you have to feel, so perhaps this really isn't the 50/50 match that the bookies want us to believe.

First to 5 here and I reckon McGill gets over the line without the need for a deciding leg. He beat Pengfei 4-0 in their most recent match 3 months ago and looks to be going well. Won 5-0 and 5-1 in qualification and made the Quarter Finals of the Grand Prix, losing out in a deciding leg in a match that perhaps he should have won on chances he had. Since a poor World Championship he has won 10 out of his last 13 matches, with losses to Neil Robertson and the other 2 against Murphy. 
The other one that I am going for, and it's not my kinda bet at all normally, but I'm going to take Jimmy White (-1.5 handicap) to beat Peng Yisong. Normally, I would be taking White on with a young chinese player but White is playing decent at the moment and has beaten Gould (5-2) and Mark Joyce (5-3) in qualification for this event. He also beat Steadman 4-0 at The Welsh. I reckon he wins this game with some frames in hand.
2.5pts A.McGill (-1.5 frame handicap) to beat Pengfei 4/5 bet365
2.5pts J.White (-1.5 frames handicap) to beat P.Yisong evens bet365
 

Impossible to please everyone, but definitely agree that van den Bergh is lucky to be there - don’t think the PDC wanted it to be too Brit-centric so had to pick another European player, although you could definitely argue Noppert deserved it more than DVDB. Humphries must be very disappointed to miss out after the year he’s had, Cullen was within 1mm of winning it last year so is another who is  pretty unlucky, and the European Champion Ross Smith doesn’t get a chance either. 
Time to either increase the field size or put down some set criteria for qualification.
 

so, with no Golf, Snooker, Darts or Cricket to speak of, I've taken another look at The German Masters which get going Wednesday 3rd feb at The Tempodome in Berlin. Quite a small ranking event really and as eluded to above, the only "big names" this week really are Neil Robertson, Kyren Wilson and Jack Lisowski. Lisowski is very much due a ranking win but at 4/1 for him to beat Anda, Yisong, Guodong or Zhengyi and then beat Kyren Wilson AND Neil Robertson (potentially) plus he has to beat his own demons of that first win, you can see 4/1 is no value at all.
No value on Neil, no value on Ali Carter, who has a mistake in him but yet still is single digits. Walden looked absolutely terrible last time we saw him and yet he is coming out at 11s. For me, it's all about the outsiders in this event. I'll take 2 from top, 2 from bottom and little quarter point ews on Wakelin and Zhengyi. Purely for one reason. He (Wakelin) has made alot of money from the Shoot Out. He got top break too and so he has no worries whatsoever coming into this event. With that kind of freedom, this is one event and likely the only event all season that I'll give him a half point e/w shot.
2pts e/w A.McGill to win German Masters 20/1 willhill
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0.5pts e/w Guodong to win German Masters 50/1 betfred
0.5pts e/w Yupeng to win German Masters 50/1 bet365
0.5pts e/w Milkins to win German Masters 50/1 bet365
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0.25pts e/w Zhengyi to win German Masters 100/1 coral
0.25pts e/w Wakelin to win German Masters 125/1 bet365
 

I don't think Rybakina moves well, but with both of them the game quality is dictated by the serve. It's such a different game to that of the average woman player, who battles to hold serve.
Not a blowout either way, but Sabalenka has not lost a match all year, and has not dropped a set this tournament. She also owns a 3-0 record against Rybakina.
 
 

Really nothing in it, just a couple of points here and there. Was very impressed with Sabalenka's serve. It held up, except for 1 double on match point. In previous years she would have served 10 doubles in the 3rd set.
Probably with Swiatek, these two will form a very tough trio, and could dominate woman's tennis for years. Maybe just below are Garcia and Badosa.
The balls are quite an issue at the AO. Dunlop are making a strange ball that fluffs up quickly (4 games). Big servers don't like it, as it slows the ball down through the air. But Djoko loves it. Just is perfect for his game.
I am not a big fan of players who don't work hard on their game. Hey, you are a professional. You owe it to yourself to really work hard and improve constantly. Look at the players who have stayed similar in the last few years ...
Medvedev (game hastotally stagnated and could even have gone backwards). De Minaur , Ruud, Rublev, Hurkacz, Cilic, Norrie, Berrettini, Carreno Busta. Their games are already maxed out. 
But I like the up and comers. Tiafoe, Fritz, Alcaraz, Rune. Alcaraz is really a rough diamond. His game is so raw, and when he smoothes it out and gets rid of the rough edges he will be phenomenal. He is #1 and he has enormous scope for improvement.There is so much more to come from them. And I gotta include Tsitsipas in this group.
He is bigger and stronger, serving really well, backhand is better, net-play is developing, and moving very well for a big guy. Always had a couple of emotional issues, where he could lose his concentration and focus, but you can see the effort he has put in. 
Tsitsipas can cause an upset. It was strange yesterday to see Djokovic 5-1 in the 1st set and then barley get over the line. He is vulnerable, and the crowd will be more for Tsitsipas than him. I definitely think that at worst Tsitsipas wins a set. For me a small bet on Tsitsipas to win at 38 to 10 ... can't get too involved, have a mini tennis tournament tomorrow myself.
 

Price is not feeling great at moment. Looks to have some man flu. Here is what I'll be going for. Side note, Ross Smith at 66/1 is madness.
2pts Clayton to win Masters 12/1 paddypower
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1pt e.w D.Noppert to win Masters 33/1 bet365 
1pt e/w R.Smith to win Masters 66/1 bet365
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0.5pts e/w Dobey to win Masters 100/1 bet365
0.5pts e/w Clemens to win Masters 100/1 paddypower 

I honestly have a different opinion on the women's. Rybakina seems far more reliable mentally, she has a GS title under her belt, and her motions, service or otherwise, look less likely to break down than Sabalenka's. The DF problem has been mitigated somewhat, but it most certainly hasn't been eliminated, at least not from what I saw in her match against Bencic.

Djoko has swept all before him. Only set lost was against a qualifier in round 2. Closest opponent he has played (in style to Paul), would be Gregor Dimitrov and he won 7-6 6-4 6-3. I expect a close 1st set, and then a similar score line here.
 
I do like Sabalenka in the woman's. Only thing that was holding her back was the crazy double faults and she has worked hard and fixed it. She has the potential to win 2  majors this year. WImbledon will suite her serve and the US open will be similar to the Aussie. For me she is a better athlete than Rybakina, and she will enjoy the pace on the ball. Her serve has the potential to be as dominant a weapon as Serena's was for all those years.  

I managed to get effective 58.8 for Tommy Paul to win it all before the Tsitsipas-Khachanov match started. Strangely the market seemed to assume Khachanov being a significantly better player than Paul which I don't think is true.
Such a bet as well as Tommy Paul beating Djokovic at 14.x (or even a bit lower) might still be value as we cannot completely ignore injury concerns. I don't like the idea of betting on Paul to win a set, though, as some of such matches will have Djokovic suffring from injury and some of such bets would be void due to Djokovic retiring. 
By the way, I don't think at all of Paul being a great server or a weaker version of Fritz. Fritz has a much better serve and is good at hitting powerful winners whereas Paul is better at defending and much better at creating angles (which could trouble an injured Djokovic).
Yeah, betting on Paul is largely betting on Djokovic getting somewhat injured, the most likely result is 3-0 Djokovic.

I think he might be able to win a set but it's really hard to imagine Tommy Paul beating Djokovic. Well, perhaps only if Novak's injury flares up again as you said.

It's Djokovic's version of the Karate kid.
Wax on (De Minaur), Wax off (Rublev) ...

I gotta write this because I don't like Djoko. 
For me Rublev is a better version of De Minaur. But quite a similar game style. But realistically none of these players (maybe Khachanov) can go toe-to-toe with Djoko from the baseline. They all try and take him on in a game style that is so suited for his style. Was hoping that Tiafoe (just dynamic and different) or Fritz (with the huge server) would get there because I think they have the ability and  weapons to take him deep. The others, I don't give them much of a chance.
You know exactly what's coming from Rublev. Same old game that probably fails. At some point he's gonna get so frustrated and go bananas. Not if, just when. If Djoko plays similar to how he played against de Minaur, then this could be a blow out.   For me Djoko with too many guns, slowly constricts and then finishes Rublev off.  I like the under 35.5 games here, in what I think is a straight sets 6-4 6-3 6-2/3  stroll for Djoko.