Day nine Australian Open Tennis picks, odds and best bets

On By Littum

The remaining quarter-final spots at the Australian Open will be awarded on Monday when the fourth-round competition concludes in Melbourne. Teacher Tien will look to continue his breakthrough run, while men’s title favorite and defending champion Jannik Sinner will also take the field. On the women’s side, Iga Swiatek headlines the order of play.

Let’s take a look at the best bets that can be made on the Day 9 schedule.

Elina Svitolina ML over Veronika Kudermetova (-140)

Svitolina plays inspired tennis at Melbourne Park. Back from injury after missing the second half of last season, she is reunited with long-time coach Andrew Bettles and husband Gael Monfils has joined her in the fourth round with his own stunning run. While Monfils has advanced with plenty of fanfare and theatrics, Svitolina has quietly gone about her business. The Ukrainian has been clinical through 3 rounds, dropping just 1 set in total – and that was to reigning French Open and Wimbledon runner-up Jasmine Paolini. After losing the opening set to Paolini, Svitolina obliterated her 6-4, 6-0 in the next two. Meanwhile, Kudermetova is struggling down as #75 in the rankings and has much less history of success at Grand Slams than her opponent. Let’s support Svitolina to keep it going.

Learner Tien +2.5 games over Lorenzo Sonego (-120)

All aboard the Tien wagon! The 19-year-old American has been the breakout star of this Australian Open alongside Joao Fonseca (although Fonseca lost in the second round after taking out Andrey Rublev). Tien has been incredibly impressive, especially when he stunned World #5 and 3-time Aussie Open runner-up Dannil Medvedev in a five-set thriller in Round 2. Sonego ended Fonseca’s run, but the Italian has been wildly inconsistent throughout his career; asking him to take out another upstart teenager might be too much. This should also be a favorable match for Tien. His left serve and forehand can effectively victimize Sonego’s weakness, which is the backhand side. Sonego is 5-9 in his last 14 games against left-handed opponents, and during that stretch he has only defeated 1 left-handed foe ranked in the top 150. The game spread looks good, and I’ll even back Tien on the money line.

Elena Rybakina vs Madison Keys Under 1.5 sets (-150)

I’m not sure which way this one will go, but it’s probably safe to say it’s going to be one-sided one way or the other. It comes down to Rybakina’s physical condition. She took several medical timeouts for a back injury during her win over Dayana Yastremska on Saturday, but somehow managed to cross the finish line in straight sets. Still, she didn’t look good. When healthy, however, Rybakina is a far superior player to Keys. If the Kazakhs are 100 percent, I expect her to win easily. But if she isn’t (and especially if her serve is compromised) Keys is playing well enough to take advantage. I think we’ll know pretty early on who’s going to win this fight — and whoever it is, will probably win it handily.