Tennis Picks August 4th Washington and San Diego

While it is almost impossible to pick winners every day, nothing hurts more than when a pick looks all set to win their match, but then inexplicably fall apart as the final furlong approaches.

Unfortunately for me, that was the situation yesterday as Sofia Arvidsson won the first 9 games of her match with Alberta Brianti only to be pegged back to lose the 2nd set on a tie break.

To make matters worse, she then served for the match at 5-4 in the final set, only to be broken again and lose on the tie break for a second time.

Those are the kinds of losses that are much harder to take, and led to a bad day overall as Jurgen Melzer pulled out with an injury in his match with Donald Young and Ryan Harrison was comfortably beaten by Victor Troicki.

On a brighter note, the last two days has seen Marcos Baghdatis' section of the draw open up and I really hope he can take advantage of that. Jurgen Melzer, Xavier Malisse and Mardy Fish have all exited the tournament and the 19.00 we backed for Baghdatis to win this tournament at the start of the week is long gone.

Hopefully I will have better luck with the following picks:

Double; Marcos Baghdatis vs Somdev Devvarman and Gael Monfils vs Ryan Sweeting: Marcos Baghdatis will play his match this afternoon with a 1-0 advantage after all the rain yesterday decimated the days play. He was soundly beaten by Devvarman in Indian Wells earlier this season, but he must feel he can go far in a tournament where he has quite a few points to defend from last year after the exits of a number of seeds.

Gael Monfils should have too much class for Ryan Sweeting even if he is not the most reliable player on the tour when it comes to the mental approach of the game. His lack of hard court matches in recent weeks is a concern but he has enough ability to see off Sweeting here.

Double; Radek Stepanek vs Jarkko Nieminen and John Isner vs James Blake: This is a much riskier double, in my opinion anyway, than the double above but I do think both players are able to come through their matches.

Radek Stepanek has an exceptional record against left handers on the tour and it is not different against Nieminen who has beaten the last 3 times they have played.

Stepanek has been impressive in his first 2 matches of the Summer on the hard courts and has generally been the better hard court player of the two. If he continues to serve well, I can see Stepanek coming through in straight sets with a break in each set.

John Isner beat James Blake in a tight battle in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago and I am taking him to confirm that form over the veteran today. Isner's serve can put additional pressure on Blake who is still giving up a few chances on his own servince games and the pressure could eventually tell.

I would not be surprised if we see a couple of tie breaks again tonight, but I think Isner can be good enough, just, to come through.

MY PICKS: Double; Marcos Baghdatis and Gael Monfils @ 2.01 William Hill (2 Units)

Double; Radek Stepanek and John Isner @ 2.53 Sporting Bet (2 Units)

WEEKLY UPDATE WASHINGTON/SAN DIEGO: - 1.5 Units