Are you a true sports betting connoisseur? Or are you brand new on the scene? Either way, a little tennis is definitely in order. This is an absorbing sport to watch and handicap, and if your basic betting fundamentals are sound, you can make a nice chunk of change while you’re at it.

The best thing about betting on tennis is that you’re dealing with individuals instead of teams. The act of getting a football into the end zone or a basketball into a hoop is something of an organizational nightmare. It demands a lot of communication between players and coaches, or “chemistry” as the commentators put it, and even the best athletes get their wires crossed from time to time. That makes it challenging to predict how a team will perform – will it be more or less than the sum of its parts? No such concerns in tennis.

The focus on the individual player gives tennis betting a more personal slant. Statistics are still valuable, particularly the head-to-head record between the two players in a match. But you can pump up your profit margin by studying the personalities involved. The ideal tennis player is aggressive yet patient, dominant yet respectful, and most certainly a hard worker with no shortage of confidence. Roger Federer was that player from about 2003-2009, making money hand-over-fist for bettors and earning millions of fans along the way.

Value-conscious handicappers will also appreciate tennis for having one of the smaller betting markets in North America. We’re always preaching about the value of betting on college football and basketball teams from the mid-majors, and on the relatively anonymous pro sports teams from smaller towns and the West Coast. The betting lines are softer in these situations because there are fewer bettors in the marketplace forming a consensus on the value of Team A or B. Bargains are easier to find. So it is with tennis.

The rapid growth of online sports gambling has made it even easier to go shopping for value. In the ancient days of the fax machine and Wide World of Sports, you’d be lucky to get some action on one of the four majors – the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. Today, Bodog Sports has tennis betting lines available for nearly every top-flight event on the ATP and WTA calendar, including this week’s Barcelona Open for the men and the Grand Prix de SAR in Morocco for the women.

So what kind of players are you looking for? The easy answer is those who win. And in tennis, like most individual sports, the best players will generally crush their weaker opponents. The nature of tennis makes it difficult for an overmatched player to get a “lucky” win – there are just too many points and too many sets that have to be won during the course of a match. That makes tennis a bonanza for bold chalkeaters with big pockets. For example, World’s No. 1 Rafael Nadal was a –10000 favorite on Thursday against Santiago Giraldo (+1400), the No. 49-ranked player on the ATP Tour. To nobody’s surprise, Nadal won 6-4, 6-4.

Big chalk isn’t for everyone, though. There’s potentially less risk and more reward a little further down the rankings, where accomplished yet unknown players are available at bargain prices. If one of these rising stars or peaking veterans is available in a match against a bigger-name player who’s past his or her prime, you have an ideal situation from a value standpoint. Jurgen Melzer, the No. 8-ranked player in the world, was a +600 underdog when he beat Federer 6-4, 6-4 at last week’s Monte Carlo Masters. It was an upset, certainly, but Federer is not as comfortable on clay and had to be considered overvalued at –800, even in retrospect.

As with any sport, the more you know, the better you’ll manage. But it only takes a moment or two on the internet to look up how a player has performed on grass, clay or hardcourt against another player. That’s already more knowledge than most tennis fans have. Use it to your advantage and take their money.

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Kyle Hunter
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