The Australian Open final: I'm excited despite the 4:30AM start time

Watching this particular Grand Slam is a bit of a pain for me. I skip a lot of the matches because since Australia is on the other side of the world I tend to just get the scores the next day. However, tennis is a sport that I enjoy watching like no other because it is just so damn exciting all the way through. The other sports that I like such as MMA and American football can prove quite boring because there can be long stretches of time where nothing happens. Football of the soccer variety is even worse IMO and I don't understand cricket well enough to really care about it.

Tennis on the other hand, is start-to-finish action in my world so even though I am going to be really tired when the final starts here at near the crack of dawn, I am going to be glued to the TV.

src

Things didn't turn out the way that most people would have thought they would with the favorite to win the entire tournament Novak Djokovic being eliminated in the semi-final by "The Fox" Jannik Sinner.

Sinner has seriously impressed me during the few matches I have seen with him in it as the dude just seems to be a brick wall that almost nothing gets past. While I realize he is one of the best because you don't crack into the top 10 if you aren't, he just looked absolutely amazing this entire tournament including and especially when he played against Nole.

src

This guy has an absolutely amazing serve and some of them, well, I don't think anyone in the world can return them. His opponents are always going to be in trouble on his first serve as we see the best in the world seriously struggle to even reach the point that the ball gets to. This was a big problem with Djokovic and he was aced many times because of it

src

Seriously, even if you do manage to return that you are going to be so far out of position that Jannik can put the ball just about anywhere and you are not going to be able to get to it in time. You also can't position yourself in an outside position too far because Sinner is just as capable of "painting the inside line" as well.

But then we have Danlil Medvedev, who at 6 foot 6 (198 cm), is one of the tallest players to ever play the game at a top ranked level. His lanky arms make him much more capable of covering the entire service area, so it will be interesting to see how well he can handle The Fox's crushing and unpredictable serves.

src

Also, and this has been proven twice in this year's Australian Open alone, you can never count the Russian out just because he performs poorly in the first, second, or both the first sets. He has come back from 0-2 down to win on two occasions in the past two weeks. Obviously, he and his fans would prefer he perform better right from the start, but he is a comeback kid of sorts and you can be guaranteed that he will never resign himself to defeat. He is well accustomed to playing from a down a set or two position and emerging victorious.

From a Vegas odds gambling perspective Sinner is a -300 favorite (meaning you must bet $300 to win $100) and Medvedev is a +240 underdog (meaning you have to bet $100 to win $240). Which one would you choose?

I don't bet on tennis because it is nerve-wracking enough as it is but I would like to see Danlil win because I just like the guy and he always put on a good show. That being said, I have no reason to dislike Sinner, who had never won a major title. He has actually never even been in a Grand Slam final ever in his life.

No matter what happens early in the morning tonight, I am quite sure it is going to be one hell of a match.