ATP Miami Masters Betting: Tricky opener for Murray against Tomic

23Mar 2013

ATP Masters 1000

Andy Murray makes his debut at the Sony Open this evening against Bernard Tomic and Sean Calvert selects the best bet in this second round clash..

Annoyingly, Friday's wager in Miami was void, as Feliciano Lopez withdrew from the tournament due to a wrist problem and my tip Somdev Devvarman went through anyway by beating lucky loser Edouard Roger-Vasselin instead.

Day four of the men's draw in the 2013 Sony Open finally sees the start of more extensive TV coverage of the tournament and UK fans can watch Andy Murray in action on Saturday in Key Biscayne at around 7pm UK time.

The Scot takes on Bernard Tomic for the second time in their respective careers and he's been put in at around 1.15 for the win, which is a little short bearing in mind how well Bernie can play if he puts his mind to it.

After beating Novak Djokovic in the exhibition Hopman Cup in January, Tomic seemed to have a new lease of life and went on win Sydney and proclaim himself as pretty much unbeatable.

However, a predictable straight sets loss to Roger Federer followed and the Aussie hasn't done a great deal since, with perhaps his best effort coming in a tight defeat to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga indoors in Marseille.

He certainly wasn't impressive in the opening round here in Miami, just squeezing past French veteran Marc Gicquel and he's yet to better the third round of any Masters 1000 event.

This is not a straightforward match to call, with Tomic varying wildly in his level and Murray failing to produce his best in Masters Series events of late.

Andy did reach the final here in Miami last year though and should be keen to repeat in conditions that he knows well from his training base here, so perhaps a better showing than the strangely subdued efforts in Indian Wells can be expected.

As for their one previous meeting, Murray won it in straight sets 6-3, 6-2 on hard courts in Brisbane a little over a year ago, but Tomic has improved his serve since then and he may get a little closer than that this time.

With Murray too short in price it should pay to side with the total games market in this one and I'm going to put my faith in Tomic to at least push this match over the 20.5 games mark at around 1.9.