For many of the game's top players the end of the US Open signals the end of the tennis season. There might well be the Masters Series events in Shanghai and Paris, as well as the World Tour Finals in London, but for the likes of Federer, Nadal, Murray and Djokovic the real competitive edge to the year will be significantly blunted with the completion of the year's Grand Slam schedule in New York. Their appearances on tour from hereon will be sporadic, at best, only coming out to chase a few more ranking points and considerably more prize-money.
However, whilst this is bad news for the fans it's great news for backers.
The non-attendance of the 'Fab Four' will greatly increase the betting options for each event - let's not forget this quartet have shared no fewer than 16 titles between them in 2009, including all the seven Masters Series events and three of the four Grand Slams!
Their presence in any tournament greatly diminishes betting appeal (certainly at backable prices) as they stand head and shoulders above the rest of the tour. Newcomers like Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and the new US Open champion, Juan Martin Del Potro, are trying hard to bridge the gap but the game still remains there for the sharing between these four all-conquering players.
Take out the Top 4, improve your choice
So take them out of the equation for the next couple of months and the choice for us punters becomes much wider and it also comes at much better prices. This time last year players like Igor Kunitsyn and Philipp Petzschner landed maiden titles, Dmitry Tursunov, Gilles Simon and Tomas Berdych likewise all won at decent prices.
What this period of the season demands is for those players on the periphery of the top 20, top 30, even the top 50, to step up to the plate and take the opportunity to win some decent, if somewhat lesser, tournaments between now and the end of the season.
Serial under-achievers like Gael Monfils and Stanislas Wawrinka, genuine improvers like Marin Cilic, Sam Querrey and Jeremy Chardy - even the reprieved Richard Gasquet - must use this time to best effect.
For clued-up backers - and that's what we are - this is a great time to be betting. No big guns in the mix, numerous players over the top for the campaign, several guys still hungry for success, generous odds from the bookmakers. Spot the right players and you can still make a tidy profit in 2009 even if the biggest events of the season are done and dusted for another year.
Bucharest to Beijing, Stockholm to St. Petersburg, Metz to Moscow just click outright tennis bets until the end of the year and you'll see exactly what we mean ...
