Djokovic Favored to Win the China Open

After winning five of the last six China Open titles, Novak Djokovic finds himself in familiar territory as a heavy -250 favorite on the opening line at Bovada. Rafael Nadal, the 2005 China Open Champ, is a distant second, opening at +700, while last year’s runner-up, Tomas Berdych opened at +800.

Djokovic has been nearly impossible to beat this year, going 63-5 in singles action with four of those loses coming on the hard court. He’s already captured seven ATP titles this year and has gone 6-1 vs Nadal this year and is 19-2 overall against Berdych.

Nadal, who’s the third seed, has been unspectacular on the hard court this year compared to Djokovic, going 14-7, which has dropped him to eighth in the world rankings.

Berdych, the second seed, is coming off a tournament win in the Shenzhen Open and was the 2011 China Open winner. He has a career record of just 4-20 when going head-to-head with Nadal, but beat him once this year in the quarterfinal match at the Australian Open. Berdych is 32-10 on the hard court this year.

Below are the odds as of Thursday afternoon.