The Premier League is what usually interests punters the most on the Boxing Day, but even those

who don't fancy football that much will be able to find something to sink their teeth into this time

around. Our attention will be directed in two separate directions. First of all, the famous Boxing

Day Test is bound to take the centre stage in the opening hours of the day, while the Mubadala

World Tennis Championship should provide plenty of entertainment later on.

Boxing Day Test

It would be fair to say that England aren't currently enjoying the Ashes as much as they were

enjoying them a few months ago. Many are starting to believe that the English squad is well past

its peak and that it will need a major reconstruction job in order to become competitive again. Such

an assessment might be a little harsh given what we've seen from it earlier this year, but the truth is

that the visitors were completely out-classed by the Aussies in the first three battles of the current

series.

Is anything going to change in Melbourne? Well, we certainly don't believe that we are going to see

a complete change of fortunes. The Aussies seem to be on a mission and the goal of whitewashing

their arch-rivals is unbelievably close at this point. The two pictures simply couldn't be any

different. Mitchell Johnson is taking wickets without even breaking much sweat, while Graeme

Swann apparently decided to call it a day in the middle of the series. Brad Haddin is making

Alastair Cook look like your average batsman. And Pietersen? What Pietersen? David Warner is the

man who has all the shots!

It may be hard to admit, but even a draw would be a blessing for England this time around. If there

is a bet to be had on the match market, it is a bet on Australia winning for the fourth time in a row.

The price may be short and you might therefore just want to sit back and enjoy the proceedings, but

there seems to be no point in backing the visitors right now. If big prices are your thing, however,

you might want to have a small punt on Ben Stokes being the top run-scorer for England in the

first innings. He is priced at 9.00 with Bet365 to achieve that feat - a truly juicy price given that he

seems to be in good nick right now. Alternatively, the talented youngster can be backed at 3.00 with

Paddy Power to score a fifty in the first innings – a fair proposition given that he scored a brilliant

hundred under a lot of pressure last time out.

Mubadala World Tennis Championship

The Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi is going to mark the beginning of the

new tennis season and what a beginning it should be with six top ten players in the line-up! All eyes

will be on the current world's number four, Andy Murray, as the Scot will be back in action after

a pretty lengthy break, but, when it comes to winning the tournament, it is hard to see past the two

best players in the world, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

The event might be a minor one in the grand scheme of things and there might therefore be some

upsets on the cards, but Novak Djokovic was the man to beat at the end of 2013 and he will surely

want to start winning straight away, so there might actually be value in backing him to emerge

victorious at 2.25 with Bet365. The statistic that needs to be noted here is that Novak Djokovic

won this particular event in both 2011 and 2012, so there is an additional incentive for him here in

the form of a possible hat-trick title. On clay, we would probably pick Nadal, but we would have

Djokovic closer to 1.80 here, making anything above evens look good enough.

If you want to have a match bet on the early proceedings, we suggest waiting for the live betting for

the clash between Andy Murray and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. You will want to watch the match in order

to see Murray anyway, so why not have a punt on it as well? Bookmakers like Bet365 will surely

have in-play betting for the match and it is one of the battles that you should be able to decipher

really quickly from the first few games. Both guys left some questions unanswered at the end of

the last season and we believe that one of them is going to turn up in a much better fashion than the

other. The first few games should give us the answer, so bet accordingly.

The other match should be a much more competitive affair, but, if pressed, we would go with

David Ferrer due to the conditions, which should be on the slower side once again, which means

advantage Ferrer. It's not only that, however – the Spaniard has also always done well in this

particular tournament, making it to the semis last year and all the way down to the finals in the year

before, while Wawrinka – who does have a bit of a reputation as a slow starter – hasn't played in it

since 2009.