Australian Open Betting / Sean Calvert / 21 January 2009 /

Day three in Melbourne and it's been a bad event for the layers thus far, with only three men's seeds going out in the first couple of days. Would that continue today? Sean Calvert has the answers.

It looked like it would be another bad day for the layers when Roger Federer ([3.5]) cruised through to the third round in straight sets against Evgeny Korolev for the loss of just six games.

The number two seed will now face Marat Safin ([200.00]) for the 12th time in the next round after the Russian eased into the last 32 with a straight sets win over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

Federer's section of the draw is beginning to look very competitive now with Tomas Berdych, Stanislas Wawrinka and David Ferrer all winning in straight sets and Marin Cilic ([180]) is also in there after a four set win over Janko Tipsarevic.

In the adjacent quarter, defending champion Novak Djokovic will play Amer Delic, after Djokovic produced an improved performance to beat rising French youngster Jeremy Chardy in three and he is now in to [8.2] to retain his title.

Delic meanwhile, downed one of my bets with a marathon five set success over Paul-Henri Mathieu on Court 13.

The Frenchman was two sets-up (sound familiar anyone?) but proceeded to throw it away amidst a hail of Delic aces and eventually lost out 9-7 in the fifth. Thanks a bunch Paul-Henri...again. When will I ever learn?

Meanwhile, the men's number 10 seed, David Nalbandian was not having it all his own way at the Hisense Arena against Yen Hsun Lu.

The player from Chinese Taipei, who is most well known to British fans for knocking Andy Murray out of last year's Olympics, took the first set 7-5 before Nalbandian struck back to level matters at 1-1.

Last week's Sydney champion always looks to me as if he would benefit from a Murray-style hardcore exercise regime and he was up against it again when a double followed by an incorrect challenge gave Lu a break to lead 4-3.

The world number 61 was trading at [3.0] to cause a big upset and make the third round here for the first time, but he failed to hold from 40-15 up in the very next game and this was becoming a bit like a WTA match.

Nalbandian soon put a stop to that though and he made the vital breakthrough when a Lu backhand found the net, giving the Argentine the set 6-4.

With Nalbandian seemingly in some sort of control, I switched to Court 2 where there was a noisy encounter between Robin Soderling and Marcos Baghdatis taking place.

This was an interesting one, as Baghdatis always enjoys a huge fan following here and Soderling has been known to wobble under pressure in the past.

And it looked like being the case, as Soderling took the first set 6-3 and served for the second set at 5-4, but was comfortably broken amidst wild scenes, reminiscent of a Davis Cup tie.

It can't have been easy for the Swede to concentrate out there with the crowd making an unbelievable racket and there was soon controversy as Soderling left a ball at 5-6, 15-30, thinking it would be called out.

It wasn't and with no hawkeye on Court 3, he let the line judge have it with both barrels before losing the game, giving the umpire some stick and calling for the trainer.

All of this meant a switch in prices to [1.8] Baghdatis v [2.24] Soderling.

During the break there, it was back to Hisense where Nalbandian had managed to lose the fourth set 6-4 and the match was tied at 2-2.

This is one of the reasons that Nalbandian has never won a Slam. You would never see Federer or Nadal going five sets with the likes of Lu in the second round.

Things got worse for Nalbandian as he was broken in the first game of the fifth and faced break points to go 3-0 down, but Lu couldn't take his chances, despite trading at [1.5].

It didn't take long for Lu to earn some more break points though and this time he took them for a double break and 4-1 lead.

Nalbandian looked out on his feet and my boot camp suggestion was looking more pertinent by the minute as his price went out to [8.4] for the match.

That was soon [20], as Lu held for 5-1 and this was surely curtains for the Argentine. The only thing that could save him would be a monumental choke from Lu.

The crowd were loving it and although Lu did his best to choke by giving Nalbandian at least five break points, he eventually took it and we had our first major upset of the tournament.

Speaking of upsets, back on Court 2, Baghdatis had taken a 2-1 lead over Soderling and to the fan's delight, closed it out 6-3 in the fourth to earn himself a match with Mardy Fish next and a tournament quote of [13].

There was some great entertainment and another potential upset developing out on Court 6 where Fabrice 'The Magician' Santoro was up against Philipp Kohlschreiber.

The German was 2-1 up in sets, but the veteran Frenchman claimed an epic 12th game to take the match all the way to a decider.

Kohlschreiber threw his hands up in despair and bemusement, as many have done in the past when faced with the unorthodox skills of Santoro. This one has the potential to go long.

Elsewhere, there were straight sets wins for Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic, while Dinara Safina progressed in three.

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