Tennis Betting Tips: Best bets for Friday’s men’s semi-finals at the Australian Open

Only four men remain in the hunt for the 2024 Australian Open title.

Upsets have been few and far between in the men's draw at Melbourne Park and the semi-final quartet are all ranked inside the world’s top six.

World number one and defending champion Novak Djokovic meets fourth seed Jannik Sinner in a rematch of last season’s Wimbledon semi-final.

Djokovic eased to a 6-3 6-4 7-6 success at the All England Club on that occasion but Sinner will believe he has what it takes to reverse that form while Daniil Medvedev, runner-up in Melbourne in 2021 and 2022, locks horns with Alexander Zverev in what could be an epic last-four duel.

Over 39.5 games in Novak Djokovic v Jannik Sinner @ 4/5

Djokovic has made the Australian Open his own down the years, taking the title a record ten times and on each of his last four visits to Melbourne Park.

Many observers will be expecting the slick Serb to land an eleventh Aussie Open crown in the coming days, but semi-final challenger Sinner shouldn’t be ruled out and poses a serious threat to Djokovic's reign down under.

The Italian fourth seed has reached the last four without losing a set, dropping serve only twice in five wins and beating capable performers Sebastian Baez, Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublev along the way.

Djokovic, on the other hand, has required four sets in three of his five wins. The Serb has been pushed hard by Croatian qualifier Dino Prizmic, world number 43 Alexei Popyrin and quarter-final victim Taylor Fritz at Melbourne Park this year.

He played at least 40 games in his wins over Prizmic, Popyrin and Fritz, and it is difficult to see Djokovic thwarting the strong-serving Sinner any sooner.

The 22-year-old Italian should take plenty of confidence from his performances in the opening Grand Slam of the season and will know he has what it takes to beat Djokovic, having done so in two of their last three hard-court meetings.

With Sinner formidable on serve and Djokovic dominant on the return and superior in the longer rallies, a couple of tiebreaks are not out of the equation. That means it may take only four sets for this encounter to go beyond the required total of 39.5 games.

Alexander Zverev to beat Daniil Medvedev @ 6/5

Zverev produced one of the best performances of his career in his four-set quarter-final triumph over world number two Carlos Alcaraz, who bookmakers believed was Djokovic’s biggest title threat entering the tournament.

It was a superb serving display from the German, who registered a first-serve percentage of 85 per cent and was broken only twice by Alcaraz.

A reproduction of that stellar showing gives him every chance of reaching his first Grand Slam final since finishing runner-up to Dominic Thiem at the 2020 US Open.

Medvedev is a worthy adversary and is a big server himself, something that should ensure this contest is an intense battle.

But the Russian has looked more prone to mistakes than Zverev en route to the last four and he has dropped at least one set in four of his five matches, requiring a final-set decider to come past Emil Ruusuvuori and Hubert Hurkacz.

With Zverev performing at the peak of his powers, particularly on serve, and sure to be full of confidence after beating Alcaraz, it is the German who makes most appeal at the prices.

Check out the rest of our Tennis Betting Tips here.