A good day yesterday with Lleyton Hewitt overcoming an incredibly slow start to defeat Feliciano Lopez 7-5 6-3. I seriously doubted Lleyton when he was down a break and multiple break points for a second break, but the thing about Lleyton is he will always give it his all. Lopez got tight, and Lleyton capitalised.

Week-to-date:

Brisbane: 5-1 (Best Bets 2-0)

Chennai: 0-1

Total: 5-2 (Best Bets 2-0)

Best Bet

Chardy -2.5 games at $1.80 at Sportingbet

Sam Groth vs Jeremy Chardy – Not Before 4pm AEDST

I am happy to oppose the fitness of Groth here. Groth has been absolutely super in his two matches this week. After beating Ryan Harrison in two tiebreak sets in Round 1, Groth was able to get the better of Herbert in a long 2nd Round match, saving a match point along the way. You could tell how much Groth was emotionally invested in the match, and it finished up just after 1am.

When you consider the amount of energy expended by Groth, finishing at 1am, still up recovering at 3am (see his Twitter), and backing up around 13 hours later, I am happy to oppose him here. I really liked Chardy regardless of this fact, but this just furthers my confidence here.

Chardy has played two very solid matches to start here in Sydney. Having defeated Mannarino in the 1st round, Chardy then went on to beat another countryman in Mahut in 3 sets. Mahut, another big server, didn’t get it all his own way against Chardy, only winning 47% of points on his 2nd serve on the way to being broken 4 times.

To play the high impact, high speed tennis that Groth plays, you want to be at 100%. If Sam’s serve is slightly off, he will really struggle here. Backing up off a few long and gruelling matches (Sam doesn’t play a lot of Grand Slam tennis, so this is as long as it gets for him), I think Chardy will be far too much for Groth to handle. Chardy is a few notches above Groth’s other two opponents and the class will prevail.

To add to the issues Groth will face, he is moving to the outside court today. He really fed off the crowd, so a smaller turnout may not help, combined with Chardy having played both his previous singles matches on Court 1.

Suggested Bet: Jeremy Chardy -2.5 games at $1.80 at Sportingbet

Confidence: 75%