OTW Extra Email Archive - January 2024
Notes from the tour - week 1...
Wednesday 3rd January 2024
Happy New Year…
Hots on the heels of your Ones to Watch in 2024 report (view it here). Here are my notes from the opening few days of the new tennis season…
Grand Slam champs on the comeback trail…
A few big names are back on the circuit for 2024. These players are all former Grand Slam winners, who were missing in action for most if not all of 2023. Injuries and surgeries, mental health issues, pregnancy - all played a part. Now back in action as of this week:
Emma Raducanu and Marin Cilic - both surprise, 100/1 US Open winners in the past. Cilic is now 35 years of age. Raducanu is only 21…
Rafael Nadal - needs no introduction from me. Has record 14-time French Open champion Rafa got one more Roland Garros triumph up his sleeve before retirement looms? The 37-year-old is 9/2 for this year’s big one in Paris. He’ll be 38 by the time the final is played…
Naomi Osaka is now a mum. She returned to the WTA Tour this week, winning one match, and then losing in the 2nd round at WTA Brisbane. Still only 26 years old, former no.1 and multiple Grand Slam title-winner Osaka says she’s aiming for the top again. If Naomi’s mental health is in a good way, then this is one comeback that could have legs…
Angelique Kerber is another multiple-Major-winner, former world no.1, back in action for 2024, having become a mother for the first time. Angie is now 35 years of age…
Someone should tell the bookies that Petra Kvitova is taking time out to have a baby… as I write, a few firms - including BetVictor - have still got the Czech on their Aussie Open list as a 50/1 shot…
Or maybe the bookmakers know exactly what they are doing? BetVictor’s Grand Slam tennis rules state that: ‘All Outright bets shall stand, irrespective of whether the player competes, up until the 1st round draw has been made’. The Australian Open 1st round draw won’t be made until the end of next week…
‘Basketball’ scores…
99-98…
125-129…
125-130…
They sound like NBA score-lines, but those are actually the Total Points tallies from three tennis matches on the ATP & WTA Tours this week. In each case, the player winning the fewest total points in the match went on to claim the win. With Lin Zhu, Jan-Lennard Struff, and Linda Noskova all saving match points on the way to victory, too.
This really is a sport of small margins. Struff saved nine match points against Cilic in Hong Kong. The 33-year-old German has never won an ATP title. Could this finally be his week?
If you’re good enough, you’re old enough…
Linda Noskova is one of the teenagers in our new, Ones to Watch in 2024 report - read it here. The 19-year-old has won two matches so far this week - both going the distance to the full three sets. Noskova went off at 33/1 for WTA Brisbane, drifted to 40/1 yesterday - and is now 20/1 in general, with William Hill going 25/1…
Mirra Andreeva is also on our 2024 list, and going for a maiden senior WTA title in Brisbane - and she’s just 16 years of age. As is Luke Littler in the PDC World Championship darts final this evening. If you’re good enough, you’re old enough…
Players tend to mature into big-title prospects a little older in golf. One player I’m keeping an eye on this year is last season’s impressive rookie, Ludvig Aberg. This stat makes me think the 24-year-old Swede is one to watch at the Majors this year:
That’s all from me for today. I’ll be back next week, when we’ll be turning our attention to the latest events on the ATP & WTA Tours… and then the first tennis Grand Slam of the year, the Australian Open, which starts in Melbourne on Sunday 14th January. Watch this space…
Enjoy the tennis…
P.S
Did I mention my FREE Ones to Watch in 2024 Report? Get it here.
Best wishes,
Oliver Upstone