It’s the penultimate day of action from the Miami Open 2015 and we’re in for three special matches as the two semi finals in the men’s draw will see us with tomorrow’s finalists and the women’s final will see the title going either to Spain or remain in its homeland.
The first of the semi final matches in the men’s draw sees a clash of the players ranked fourth and ninth in the world as this Andy Murray v Tomas Berdych match sees them meet for the 12th time in their careers. The Pole leads the Scot 6-5 in their previous encounters, but they have met only once since 2013 when Murray came from a set down to win the Australian Open semi final 6-7, 6-0, 6-3, 7-5 in January of this year.
Bet365 make the world number four, who has risen back through the ranks since sinking to 12th in the world last September, the 1.53 favourite to move into the final of the Miami Open ahead of Berdych, who can be backed at odds of 2.50 to progress. Murray has impressed at the big events this year with his final appearance in Melbourne and a final four spot at Indian Wells recently, losing both times to world number one Novak Djokovic.
Berdych has been equally impressive as Murray this year with him reaching the final four in four of his five tournaments before this one in Miami, but despite making two finals he has lost to David Ferrer in Doha and Stan Wawrinka in Rotterdam. Murray and Djokovic have beaten him at the final four stage too, but despite being the outsider today we see him offering value for this semi final meeting. He is ahead of Murray in head-to-head matches and can certainly push him all the way, and while the Pole may not win this match we expect this to go all the way.
Back +22.5 games in the Murray v Berdych Miami Open Semi Final @ 1.83 with Bet365.com.
The second of the two Miami Open semi final matches today sees a tale of two big hitters as Novak Djokovic takes on home favourite John Isner in their ninth ever meeting. The world number one has won six of the eight clashes with the player ranked 24th in the world and with the Serbian having recorded his first straight sets win against the North Carolina native at Indian Wells last month he’ll believe that he can cruise through this match and into his third final of the year after winning the Australian Open and Indian Wells titles already.
Djokovic is the 1.16 favourite in the Bet365 Sportsbook to win this semi final clash ahead of Isner, who is available at 5.00 to upset the odds and improve on his best performance of the year so far by making his first final appearance.
With Djokovic’s straight sets win over Isner in their last tournament at Indian Wells as well as the fact that Djokovic has won three of the last four Miami Open titles we do not see this game ending well for the American and we see the Serbian top seed easing into the final in Miami despite Isner’s impressive display against Kei Nishikori to reach this final four stage.
Back Djokovic – 3.5 games @ 2.10 in the Bet365 Sportsbook.
The final of the WTA 2015 Miami Open between Serena Williams and Carla Suárez Navarro looks to be a foregone conclusion according to the bookmakers as the world number one, who has won all of the previous four meetings between herself and the Spaniard, is the massive favourite to take her second tournament win of the year.
Williams is the 1.08 favourite to add the Miami Open title to the Australian Open she won in January, while Bet365.com make Suárez Navarro can be backed at odds of 8.00 to upset the odds and claim her first win in five against the winner of the last two Miami Open titles. Williams has been so dominant in the last four meetings that she has dropped only ten games across the four matches, including winning 6-0, 6-0 at the 2013 US Open, but with 27th seed Sabine Lisicki and third seed Simona Halep pushing her to three sets in the last two meetings to make this final can the Spaniard upset the odds and shock the tennis world today?
Suárez Navarro has had two three set matches on her march to the final today too as she saw off seventh seed Agnieszka Radwanska in round four and Venus Williams, the sister of her opponent this evening, in the Quarter Finals. She eased past ninth seed Andrea Petkovic in the final four stage with a straightforward 6-3, 6-3 win but will it be enough to win today?
We believe not and despite Williams being such short odds we see her being the value pick for this match. We expect she’ll wrap up the game quickly and without problem this evening to add to her already bulging list of WTA titles.
Our money is on -18.5 games in this Williams v Suárez Navarro WTA Miami Open Final @ 1.80 with Bet365.com.