Tennis Picks July 16th

I was so angry with the way things had gone for me the day before yesterday that I could not bring myself to make more picks until I felt I was back on the straight and narrow.

The tournaments this week have not been kind to me, and I have been lacking the little bit of luck everyone who places a wager needs at any time.

Igor Andreev, Filippo Volandri, Gilles Simon and Mikhail Youzhny have all let me down from positions where they were winning the match before falling apart.

David Ferrer failed to cover by 0.5 games after missing numerous chances in his match with Pere Riba, and I just needed to take a break from the action.

The tournament in Stuttgart has seen all the seeded players exit the tournament and I think Juan Carlos Ferrero could take advantage and really show the rest of the tour that he is back to full health after missing a large chunk of the last 10 months through injury.

Over in Sweden it is a different story as the top 4 seeds all reached the Semi Finals- I still have Nicolas Almagro running in the outright market but need him to reverse a 0-7 head to head record with David Ferrer if he is going to get a chance to defend his title on Sunday.

Now on to the Semi Final Picks:


Double; Juan Carlos Ferrero vs Federico Del Bonis and Robin Soderling vs Tomas Berdych: Both of these players are rightly the favourites to come through their respective Semi Finals and I believe both will do so.

Juan Carlos Ferrero has been playing some very good tennis this week and he has the experience to make things tough for Federico Del Bonis, a player that has never before reached this stage of a full ATP Tournament.

Del Bonis has done very well to come through the qualifiers to reach this stage, but has taken advantage of a kind draw and this will be his toughest test so far. The young Argentine has not really shown the levels of performances before and I expect Juan Carlos Ferrero to come through.

Robin Soderling has a 8-4 head to head record over Tomas Berdych and he has now won 6 of the last 7 matches they have played against one another. I was slightly concerned with the illness Soderling had at Wimbledon, one that led to him pulling out of the Davis Cup tie for Sweden, but he has made great progress through the week and looks desperate to regain his title here after losing in the Final last year.

Tomas Berdych has been beating the lower ranked players with relative ease, but has struggled with the better players while not enjoying his best season. The big Czech should make things difficult but I think he is mentally more fragile than Soderling at this moment and I expect the Swede to make it through to a Final in his own country.


MY PICKS: Double; Juan Carlos Ferrero and Robin Soderling @ 1.92 Pinnacle (3 Units)

WEEKLY UPDATE:  A very disappointing - 8.61 Units