US Open champion earns respect and is now priced close to Nadal and Federer.

Now that the 2009 US Open is over there is not another Grand Slam in the near future. However Stan James, on the ball as usual, has already released its prices for several key players on the men’s tour.

At this point the favorites still run six deep though Andy Roddick is a questionable favorite:

1. Roger Federer, +200 (2/1).
2. Rafael Nadal, +250 (5/2).
3. Juan Martin Del Potro, +275 (11/4).
4. Andy Murray, +350 (7/2).
5. Novak Djokovic, +550 (11/2).
6. Andy Roddick, +1600 (16/1).

In that group, Roddick and Murray look like the two worst bets based on their poor performances at the US Open.

On the other hand Nadal and Djokovic are probably the players that should be attracting money at this point. Djokovic played exceptionally well hard court tennis over the summer and he has won the Aussie before. Nadal, despite losing to Del Potro in the semis, still matched his career best US Open performance and will certainly be looking to perfect his game to defend his 2009 championship.

[Source: http://www.crunchsports.com/category/Tennis/Australian-Open-2010–Juan-Martin-Del-Potro-Among-Favorites-200909150003/]