Australian Open Betting / Ben Caudell / 23 January 2012 /

Rafael Nadal is yet to drop a set while Kim Clijsters is determined that her quarter-final will not be her last match at Melbourne. Ben Caudell explains why the stats are on their side.

Both Caroline Wozniacki, who played superbly against Jelena Jankovic the other day, and Tomas Berdych, who has a decent chance of upsetting the odds and reaching the semi-final, will receive a lot of support on Tuesday. But their opponents, Kim Clijsters and Rafael Nadal respectively, have the stats stacked heavily in their favour so I'll be backing them.

*Five reasons to back Rafael Nadal -6.5 Games @ [2.58] against Tomas Berdych

• Nadal holds a commanding 10-3 head-to-head series lead over the Czech, triumphing in their past nine encounters. Berdych's three wins against the Spaniard have all come on hard courts, however his most recent win was over six years ago in Madrid when the event was played indoors.

• The world number two, who aims to reach his first semi-final in three years at the Australian Open, hasn't dropped a set in his opening four matches. More notable is the fact that he has lost serve just four times, while converting 23 breaks of serve against his opponents.

• Nadal has won five of his last six matches when priced as a moderate favourite, eight in a row in five set matches and four in a row on hard-courts. Berdych has dropped two sets from his four matches and recently lost to both Andy Roddick and Bernard Tomic in three sets at the Kooyong exhibition event.

• The Spaniard has dropped only one set from his last nine match wins against Berdych, he has also won by more than 6.5 games in all three of his best of five set match-ups with the Czech (although none of the three were played on hard-courts) and by this same margin in 11 of his last 13 best of five set matches overall.

• Nadal owns superior tournament stats on first serve percentage, first serve return points won, and break points won, he also holds an overall grander ranking, match rating and surface rating.

*Four reasons to back Kim Clijsters @ [2.24] to defeat Caroline Wozniacki

• This will apparently be the adopted Aussies last and final Australian Open event unless she comes out of retirement again. There's no doubting Clijsters commitment to her match against the world number one, even though she doesn't seem to be 100% fit.

• Clijsters, who has won 87.18% of her career matches at the Australian Open, defeated Na Li in last year's final in three sets and at this year's fourth round match by a similar shoreline having faced six match points, she has now won 11 matches in a row at Melbourne Park.

• Clijsters has a superior match rating, surface rating and most importantly a 3-0 head-to-head series against Wozniacki with all three match-ups being played on hard.

• With a 92% of match wins on Grand Slam hard courts in her last 50 and 91% of career match wins at the Australian or US Open, Woznaicki will be up against a true legend and a player who will not want to go out without a fight.

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