Our trader’s insights for the overnight tennis action in Australia

Simona Halep to beat Ka Pliskova – 4/5

This match definitely has to be potential to be one of the games of the tournament with two of the heavyweights squaring off.

Halep holds the advantage in previous encounters, winning 5 of 6, with four of the wins coming in straight sets – the big Czech’s only win came in three sets on indoor hard in the Fed Cup. Halep has had her tough moments in this tournament, starting in round 1 where she had to overcome an injury scare before taking 30 games in set 3 of her tough third-round encounter with Lauren Davis, before improving greatly in round 4 and comfortably taking down the dangerous Naomi Osaka.

Pliskova had her own mini-struggles in the previous rounds and we fancy Halep to continue her dominance over Pliskova and get the job don

Angelique Kerber v Madison Keys: Over 21.5 Games – 4/5

The women’s Quarter Final draw throws up another fascinating encounter, with Kerber the 4/7 favourite in this match.

Both players have impressed to date in this tournament, with Kerber dropping the only set of either player’s matches to date in what proved to be a tricky encounter vs Hsieh in the previous round.

We think Keys has a slightly better chance than the markets suggest (but having won 6 of the 7 encounters to date we aren’t brave enough to back against Kerber in the match odds market). And, with both holding serve well over 70% over the past 12 months on all surfaces – with Keys above 80% on hard courts alone – we like the look of the overs in the total games market, where two long sets or 3 sets should be enough get above the necessary 21 games.

Roger Federer to beat Tomas Berdych 3-0 – Evens

Tomas Berdych has had quite the tournament, rolling back the years with comfortable straight sets wins over both Fabio Fognini and Juan Martin Del Potro as well as taking down the rising Alex de Minaur in round 1 with a bagel set included.

Federer has yet to drop a set in his four matches and once again looks the obvious man to beat, especially with Rafa going out a day after Novak Djokovic. Moreover, Federer has only lost a set once in his last 7 encounters with the Bird Man, winning 17 of the 18 sets and we’re backing him to win 3-0 just as he did at the same stage of this tournament last year.