Nadal can slam door on rivals

SPORTS BETTING: ANDY Murray missed the chance to pick up the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award in front of his British fans because of his intensive training regime.

Recuperating from back surgery, the reigning Wimbledon champion has been engaged in a race against time to recover form and fitness.

But, given his early exit in the Qatar Open, it’s a battle he seems to be losing. We might have to wait until the summer and Wimbledon for the great Scot to be back to his brilliant best.

Murray would normally be around the 7-2 mark for the Australian Open, the first grand slam of the season from Monday. Instead he can be backed at a whacking 9-1.

Iron man Novak Djokovic is 11-10 favourite, with Qatar champion and world number one Rafael Nadal 13-5 — quite a generous price for the Spaniard. I can’t see past the top two seeds.

Juan Martin Del Potro (10-1) promises plenty, but has just one grand slam win on his CV, while Roger Federer (16-1), great champion though he was, is on a downward curve.

The rest look outclassed, although Jo-Wilfried Tsonga might outplay his price of 40-1.



NEIL Robertson did this column a big favour when winning the UK Open at 7-1, and he will be looking to follow up in the Masters, for which he is the 6-1 second favourite, at Alexandra Palace from this weekend.

But he has a tough first-round match against Mark Allen and even though Mark Selby (13-2) and Ding Junhui (7-1) boast good form in this event, the choice has to be Ronnie O’Sullivan at 11-4.

The Rocket prefers these shorter tournaments as they don’t challenge his low boredom threshold, and he showed in last year’s World Championship that he is a class apart when his head is screwed on right.



HAVING been battered 5-0 in the Ashes series, England’s cricketers try their luck in a one-day series against Australia, starting in Melbourne on Sunday.

I can’t see the Aussies taking their foot off England’s throat after several years of being under the cosh, so 2-5 about them winning the five-match series is fair enough.

Admittedly, England will field many players who did not take part in the Ashes debacle, but with Mitchell Johnson in such rampant form, the hosts should prevail,

possibly 4-1.