It has been an incredibly busy day today meaning I could not get on with my picks at a reasonable time so I am going to ignore the San Diego matches as they start very soon and I have not had time to look and analyse my picks.
On the other hand, we have a bit of time before the Washington tournament starts so I will make a couple of plays from there:
Ryan Sweeting vs Alex Bogomolov: It is hard picking through these early round matches as you get some untrustworthy players that are more likely to stress you out than give you an easy win.
In saying that, I am going to back Ryan Sweeting to beat his compatriot tonight even though Bogomolov has been in the better form when looking at his Semi Final appearance in Los Angeles last week.
Sweeting has not been playing that well in recent weeks but he did perform pretty well at Delray Beach and Indian Wells earlier this season and the hard courts in the US should be his best surface. He also has decent course form by reaching the 3rd Round here in Washington last year.
Bogomolov has had a couple of strong tournaments on the hard courts this year with the Semi Final from last week backed up by a 3rd Round appearance in Miami. He is perhaps more notable on this side of the pond for beating Andy Murray earlier this year.
Ryan Sweeting has also won 4 of the 7 matches they have played- in fact he is 3-1 in the last 4 matches that have taken place over the last 18 months and he also beat Bogomolov in the qualifiers here last year.
James Blake vs David Nalbandian: This could be a terrible pick at around 2am British time, but I think James Blake has a chance in surprising David Nalbandian here.
Blake has played some decent tennis over the last month on the hard courts so he should be mostly comfortable on the surface. It has taken the likes of John Isner and Juan Martin Del Potro to stop his runs and the American must be disappointed to be handed this tough 2nd Round match.
However, Nalbandian has not played a match since Wimbledon as injury and then lack of entry to tournaments has given him an extended time off. He is the reigning Champion here so motivation should be high with points to defend, but it is a tough test on little competitive tennis.
Blake also won their only previous meeting and could cause problems if he is hitting the ball well- the problem these days is the lack of consistency that Blake has and Nalbandian basically won this tournament last year with little tennis coming in.
As I said, it might look silly at 2am this morning, but I will back the underdog here too.
MY PICKS: Ryan Sweeting @ 2.10 Ladbrokes (1 Unit)
James Blake @ 2.20 Stan James (1 Unit)
WEEKLY UPDATE WASHINGTON/SAN DIEGO: + 0.2 Units
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