The first tennis major of the season, the Australian Open, starts on Sunday from Melbourne, but is there anyone out there who stands any chance of stopping Novak ‘juggernaut’ Djokovic?

The fixed odds outright prices ahead of Friday morning’s draw suggested a simple answer of “no” with the Serbian at 8/11 with Spreadex and the nearest challenger Andy Murray way back at 11/2.



Djokovic plays his game in a merciless, relentless and ruthless fashion not too dissimilar in character to Robert Patrick’s infamous T-1000 robot in Terminator 2.

And not many Spreadex clients are looking past the 28-year-old, who already has five Australian Open titles to his name and has won four of the last five tournaments played.

In a similar vein to golf tournament betting 10 years ago when Tiger Woods was in his pomp, tennis betting has almost become more of a case of predicting who will end as runner-up, with Djokovic generally assumed to win whichever major he competes in – the French Open perhaps excepted.

Just like the T-1000 however, Djokovic is not completely indestructible. And while none of his closest challengers will be trying to freeze him solid with liquid nitrogen or push him into vat of molten steel, there are perhaps one or two who could challenge him.

Murray has been a four time finalist in the last six years so could this finally be his year? The Scot’s problem when facing Djokovic tends to be stamina, as even if he does manage to get ahead he often struggles to press home his advantage and keep up his level for the full duration.

But after almost single-handedly guiding Great Britain to Davis Cup success, and winning the Sports Personality of the Year for doing so, could Murray be inspired to go one step further Down Under and take inspiration from his previous two Grand Slam final victories over Djokovic?

Not if the betting from Spreadex clients is anything to go by, with very few rushing forward to support the Dunblane man.

As for who else could challenge Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka won the Australian Open in 2014 and of course beat Djokovic in the French Open final last year, preventing the Serb from a Grand Slam clean sweep.

Wawrinka was a 12/1 shot with Spreadex ahead of the Friday draw. Fellow Swiss Roger Federer is the third favourite at 8/1 but the maestro has been attracting little support with tennis fans perhaps having his comprehensive defeat to Djokovic in last year’s World Tour Finals at the 02 fresh in their minds.

Rafael Nadal at 10/1 is also unpopular. Instead we’ve seen more action with punters chancing their arm at some longer shots.

Aussies Bernard Tomic and Nick Kyrgios have been attracting some bets to pull off a surprise on home soil at 50/1 and 28/1 respectively and David Ferrer at 66/1 and even further back Kevin Anderson at 100/1 and David Goffin at 200/1 have generated some each-way interest.

Looking at the women’s side of the game, Serena Williams is the 5/2 favourite ahead of Victoria Azarenka at 5/1, Maria Sharapova at 7/1, Simona Halep at 9/1 and Petra Kvitova and Garbine Muguruza both at 12/1.