If you are a fan of certain US sports such as basketball, baseball or ice hockey, you will obviously love the months in which the season is in full flow, with constant action every few days — enough to keep you going through the average work day. However, when the season comes to a close, fans and supporters are left lost — not knowing how to fill their evenings and weekends if there isn’t any sporting action to keep them occupied. It is a first-world problem, for sure, but it is a problem nonetheless.
That is why certain sports such as cricket and tennis are so universally popular; there will never be a wait of more than a week or two before the next event happens. This is especially true in the world of tennis. While the northern hemisphere is suffering through a harsh winter in January, they can choose to tune in to coverage of the Australian Open to see some of the top tennis stars in the world battling it out. It is also a great tournament to bet on, with a wide variety of betting odds and markets to find.
Placing bets on tennis can be fun, but it does require some basic homework. As with betting on any sport, it is very important to look at the sports betting stats before selecting which players or matches you wish to bet on. Doing some research is vitally important in tennis betting, to make sure you have picked a player who is likely to win.
For most tennis fans, they will always have a sense of which ATP event is on the horizon. However, there are always new fans flocking to the sport who probably struggle to work exactly when all the major competitions take place. Therefore, we thought it would be helpful to run through the 2022 calendar, so you can be doing your research a few weeks in advance and get your betting slips at the ready.
2022 kicks off with the ATP Cup
January can be a rather bleak time, as once the excitement of Christmas and New Year have worn off, for many there is the realization that there isn’t much to look forward to for a while — unless you are a tennis fan, because on January 1 the 2022 season begins with the ATP Cup.
This will be the third edition of the tournament, held at the SuperDome in Sydney between January 1 and January 9. It is a team tournament, with 16 nations taking part. Serbia is seeded No. 1 thnaks to Novak Djokovic, with defending champion and also Davis Cup champion Russia not far behind.
Australian Open the first major in the calendar
Only a short time later, the first Grand Slam event begins in Melbourne; the Australian Open starts on the January 17. Last year it was Djokovic who lifted the trophy, beating Daniil Medvedev in straight sets in the final. It was Djokovic’s third consecutive triumph in Rod Laver Arena and it is the Grand Slam he has won more than any other (9 wins in total). The pre-tournament odds have him down as the favorite, so don’t be surprised to see him emerge victorious once again this year.
There are then a huge number of smaller ATP events, such as ATP 500s in the likes of Rotterdam, Rio de Janeiro, and Dubai before the next big one at Indian Wells in March (known as the BNP Paribas Open and won this past fall by Cameron Norrie).
Excitement boils over in May and June
Again, there are several ATP Masters and ATP 500 events between March and late May. But the most highly anticipated period of the tennis season is in between late May and early July. This is because two of the Grand Slams happen just weeks apart; the French Open at Roland Garros and Wimbledon at the All-England Club.
Given
his dominance over the past few years, it won’t come as a surprise to many that
Djokovic won both of these events in 2021. In Paris he lost the first two sets
to Stefanos Tsitsipas before digging deep to perform a quite spectacular
recovery to prevail in five. A few weeks later at Wimbledon, he again lost the
opening set to Matteo Berrettini but ended up winning in four.
Will the Serb be victorious in at least one of these tournaments in 2022? The
betting odds would certainly indicate he is likely to pick up at least one
trophy during this frantic period.
US Open and beyond
In September in Flushing Meadows we have the final Grand Slam, the US Open. This was the only one Djokovic didn’t win in 2021, losing in straight sets to Medvedev.
The action doesn’t stop there, though. The full calendar hasn’t been announced for the second half of the year, but there will be plenty of ATP tournaments to watch and place bets on — culminating with the Nitto ATP Finals in November.
let’s hope Covid doesn’t cause schedule chaos
Let’s hope so. Also hope Fed to have a good year and retire grateful.
Also, I hope Murray, Zverev, Tsitsipas, Thiem and Shapovalov to win many trophies.
They cant all win many tournaments competing against each other but I know what you mean – and its the end of the big three domination?
Yes, I think the end is near for big three. I also have to mention Alcaraz and Sinner.
January has become one of my favourite months of the year because of the new tennis season.
Often snow outside here, and getting up at 3am to watch it form Down Under where its 40 degrees and blazing sun .
Very curious to see who Ricky will pick in his annual slam and runner up predictions. Assuming he is doing one this year?!
Ricky always has some unexpected/maverick picks.
Gonna guess he picks Djokovic for AO and Tsitsipas for RG. But who knows?
Just seen that Thiem has withdrawn from the AO because of the wrist injury.
He says that he will play the Cordoba Open in Argentina at the end of January. Wondering if this will actually happen…he has withdrawn from so many tournaments now..
Gr8 to see Andy having a go at the anti vaxxers with his
” got my third microchip injected into me today ” tweet.
If only others had the same wit and intelligence..