This week’s ATP tennis action the Indian Wells Masters 1000 series is now down to the quarter-finals stage and we came within a whisker of having two of my outright selections through to this stage. However, 12th seed Dimitrov (25/1) lost a third set tiebreak against 17th seed Sock, but eight seed Thiem (Advised 50/1 now down to 8/1) did make it through and at the time of writing was due to face third seed Wawrinka in the early hours of this morning for a place in the semi-finals, where they will face either 21st seed Carreno-Busta or 27th seed Cuevas.

After numerous selections at big prices so far this year that came close to reaching finals, hopefully Thiem will sound a change in fortune for us, and will be through to the semi-finals by the time you read this article. Elsewhere second seed and defending champion Djokovic poor form continued yesterday when he lost against the controversial Kyrgios for the second time, and the young Australian will now face ninth seed Federer, who continued to roll back the years dispatching fifth seed Nadal for the second time this year, for a place in the semi-finals.

Fourth seed Nishikori moved ominously through to the quarter-finals and now faces 17th seed Sock for a place in the semi-finals and a showdown with either Federer or Kyrgios. From a match betting/trading perspective I think Federer (1.55) is worth opposing as Kyrgios made light work of dispatching Djokovic and beat Federer the only time they met previously at the Madrid Master in 2015.