Sean Calvert: My five best bets for the 2015 majors

Can Gulbis go one better at the 2015 French Open?

With the Australian Open done and dusted, tennis expert Sean Calvert takes a look at what we can glean from Melbourne and selects five best bets for the rest of the 2015 Grand Slams...

The opening major of the 2015 tennis season is over and, although we had two familiar winners of the singles titles, there's plenty to consider looking forward to the rest of the campaign.

Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams walked away with the honours at the Australian Open, but the emergence of the likes of Madison Keys has made for some interesting futures markets for the upcoming grand slams.

Any value in Keys for the next hard court major, the US Open, has disappeared now, with the American now as short as 26.025/1 to land the title in New York and after reaching the semis in Melbourne she's as short as 67.0n/a for the French Open.

That's despite having played just 21 matches on clay in her tour career while there's already been a few quid matched on Keys for Wimbledon, for which she's a 19.018/1 chance.

This is a typical over reaction to one good major and having been a big three figure price for the Australian before the tournament it will be interesting to see her price when the US Open starts.

That's for later on in the year though and one bet I do like, which is in the very next major, is the 151.0n/a that is available on Ernests Gulbis to win the French Open.

Now is a good time to be thinking ahead to clay and from what we've seen from Rafa Nadal so far in 2015 it could work out well to get a couple of players in your portfolio early.

Gulbis made the semi-finals last year in Paris and in all the Latvian went 17-5 on clay in 2014, losing only to Djokovic, David Ferrer (twice), Kei Nishikori and Alex Dolgopolov.

The 2014 French Open was meant to be his breakthrough year, but typically for Ernie it has so far turned out to be another false dawn. However, it's worth noting that injury was a big issue towards the latter part of the season.

Another poor show in Melbourne was expected and duly arrived and assuming he can shrug off injury and stay fit 151.0n/a looks too big a price considering how shaky Nadal is looking right now.

The same could be said for Nicolas Almagro, who also might looks big at 200.0199/1 come May, with the Spaniard already having started his comeback from a long-term foot injury.

Nico looked like he was hitting the ball very well in a loss to Nishikori in Melbourne and the former three-time French Open quarter finalist (lost to Nadal each time) could also prove a good futures wager.

Laughably, young Aussie sensation Nick Kyrgios is rated the same likelihood at 200.0199/1 to win the French as Almagro, despite being injured and having played only three main level matches on the red dirt.

Another one who looks incredibly poor value for the French is Juan Martin Del Potro, who is offered as short as 17.016/1, which seems unbelievably short for a man who is undergoing yet more wrist surgery and has barely played a match for a year.

I also think it's worth laying Nadal to win the French Open - a suggestion that would have been laughable in previous years, but if he's 2.77/4 while looking miles short of fitness and form that's worth taking on.

Djokovic will be going all out to win the missing major in his trophy cabinet and I'd be confident that Rafa will trade higher than 2.77/4 at some point between now and the end of the final.

Moving on to Wimbledon and the injury theme continues here, with our US Open champion - something I never, ever thought I'd write about Marin Cilic - available at a tempting 75.074/1.

Cilic has been struggling with a shoulder/arm problem pretty much since New York, but he won 10 of his last 12 on grass and pushed eventual champion Djokovic to five sets at Wimbledon in the quarters last year.

With the confidence of a major win under his belt all it needs is for the Croat to be back on tour for a few months and that 75.074/1 might start to look big, especially as he's as short as 21.020/1 to retain his US Open crown.

Roger Federer's loss to Andreas Seppi at the Australian Open this year is further evidence that the Swiss is unlikely to win another major at his age and it seems that Nadal will once more focus all his remaining fitness on the clay at the expense of grass.

That's assuming that Nadal does recover the fitness required to compete week-in, week-out, which is far from a certainty with his injury record.

Come the final major of the year in New York we may have seen one more Djokovic/Murray major final, but at the moment it's hard to see any other more likely outcome than that in the 2015 US Open final.

Murray seemed to be getting himself back to peak form and fitness and was favourite to land that Australian Open decider when leading in the final, but his collapse may have been due to lack of matches and by September he's likely to be in peak condition.

That Melbourne collapse was rather pathetic, but the intelligent Scot will learn from it and 7.06/1 looks big about Murray landing a second US Open title.

Federer hasn't made a major final on a hard court since the 2010 Australian Open, while Rafa's situation is unclear and by the autumn it's quite possible that Djokovic and Murray will be numbers one and two in the rankings - if not officially then at least in the betting.

I don't see much value at all in the 'pretenders', such as Grigor Dimitrov, Milos Raonic et al, as they still look some way short of major winning ability, while Stan Wawrinka and Kei Nishikori seem priced up about right too.

Recommended Bets
Back to lay Gulbis to win the French Open at 151.0n/a
Back to lay Almagro to win the French Open at 200.0199/1
Lay Nadal to win the French Open at 2.77/4
Back to lay Cilic to win Wimbledon at 75.074/1
Back Murray to win the US Open at 7.06/1