Australian Open Preview

The forthcoming tennis season is eagerly anticipated. Interest in both the men's and women's games is sure to be high as punters are in the novel position of having plenty of potential winners to choose from at Grand Slams.

That seemed an unlikely scenario this time last year. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal were revelling in a duopoly at the top of the men's game - confirmed in an epic Australian Open final - while the leading women generally had no answer to Serena Williams away from clay. Now, Federer and Nadal are not the forces they once were, largely due to injuries and the improvement of others. At Melbourne we might discover whether Juan Martin del Potro's victory at the US Open really does represent a changing of the guard.

The Australian Open tennis betting should reflect this. Even more interesting is the surprise Belgian challenge to be faced by Serena. Justine Henin has joined Kim Clijsters in coming out of retirement, and if the seven-time Grand Slam winner's comeback at the Brisbane International is anything to go by another fairytale victory cannot be ruled out at Melbourne. Svetlana Kuznetsova, Caroline Wozniacki and Elena Dementieva all improved dramatically last season, so Serena will have to work harder than ever if she is to dominate again. Dinara Safina reached the final at Melbourne last year and it will be interesting to see if she has rediscovered some confidence after a disappointing second half of 2009.

Picking a winner from the men's draw is even more difficult. Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic are playing the best tennis of their careers, while del Potro and Andy Roddick will be tempting to follow. My money is on Murray to break his major duck but with Nadal starting as fifth favourite in the Australian Open betting, the tournament is going to be hard to predict.