Indian Fans Could Be In For Disappointment

Tennis will make its debut at the Commonwealth Games in October in New Delhi, but it remains to be seen what the strength of the men’s and women’s singles tournaments will be. The sport is immensely popular in India, and with not that many of the leading players in the world actually qualifying for the Games, there is even a chance that victory could go to the home country in many of the events.

The online betting news so far has mainly been of withdrawals from travelling to India, with the most recent coming on Tuesday when women’s world No 5 Samantha Stosur revealed that she would not be participating.

Stosur would have been the tennis betting favourite for the women’s singles with none of the other leading female players eligible, and in fact you have to go all the way down to outside the top 50 for the next player, Canada’s Aleksandra Wozniak.

The figures would also suggest Britain have a chance of a medal with Elena Baltacha and Anne Keothavong among the next best ranked, but that only goes to tell you that quality is not going to be on show in spades.

Britain would also have the favourite in the men’s singles if Andy Murray decides to play, but both he and Marcos Baghdatis are rated as doubts to go to New Delhi, while Lleyton Hewitt definitely will not travel.

Unbelievably that could leave big-serving South African Kevin Anderson as your favourite, so perhaps tennis will not be getting too many big headlines on what seems likely to be an understated debut globally, if not for the tennis-mad Indian public.

Their thrills will most likely come in the doubles tournaments, where Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi will be subject to plenty of admiration from the crowds. The reaction should they win gold – doesn’t really bear thinking about, but fireworks would definitely be on the cards.

Sadly, it may well be that the tournament needs a home victory to bring some excitement – the rest of the events could well prove to be a damp squib.