It is the first day of the Masters in Montreal and the big event in the WTA in Toronto and there are plenty of matches going on. The big players will not be starting until tomorrow at the earliest, but we do have a couple of matches that could be of interest.
On to the Picks:
Double; Nadia Petrova vs Jarmila Gajdosova and Jelena Jankovic vs Julia Goerges: This is a interesting double, but I think both players are more than capable of coming through tough tests.
Nadia Petrova won a hard court event in Washington recently and was also in form at Wimbledon where she reached the 4th Round. The hard courts favour her big hitting play and she could take advantage of a struggling Jarmila Gajdosova. The Australian lost early in San Diego last week and has lost 3 matches in a row, while she also exited early in tournaments at Indian Wells and Miami.
Petrova beat Gajdosova in their only previous meeting on the hard courts of Seoul.
Jelena Jankovic has always performed well on the hard courts and she reached the Quarter Final in Miami and the 4th Round in Indian Wells. She has not played since Wimbledon, but is playing Julia Goerges who is very much out of form after a very good clay court season.
Jankovic has beaten Goerges in both their career meetings, including in Miami earlier this season.
David Nalbandian vs Stanislas Wawrinka: David Nalbandian does look like a player that is coming towards the end of his career and I also think he must be thinking about retiring and how much more he wants from the game.
He lost early in Washington last week against the reinvigorated James Blake, but I think Nalbandian can get the better of Wawrinka today.
The Swiss Number 2 has played a couple of matches since Wimbledon, but this will be his first match on the hard courts of North America during this Summer. He has lost some surprising matches of late, including to Simone Bolelli at Wimbledon and Marcel Granollers at Gstaad, and he also lost early in Miami.
Wawrinka lost early in Toronto and Cincinnati last season, but importantly he lost to David Nalbandian in Washington in his first match on the hard courts in the Summer.
That was the last time Nalbandian and Wawrinka played and now leaves the head to head 5-3 in favour of the Swiss player. Wawrinka had won 5 matches in a row before the defeat in Washington and the head to head is 1-1 on the hard courts of North America.
I wouldn't go crazy on this one, but I am going to have a small interest on Nalbandian winning this match.
Treble; Kevin Anderson vs Pablo Andujar, Thomaz Bellucci vs Andrey Golubev and Nikolay Davydenko vs Flavio Cipolla: This treble should be able to come through, but I am again going to keep stakes to a minimum considering the 3 favourites are all inconsistent and capable of throwing in a shocking match to lose.
Kevin Anderson should be able to take care of the predominantly clay court player Pablo Andujar, and has an easy straight sets victory over the Spaniard in Miami earlier this year.
Thomaz Bellucci is getting a little better on the hard courts, although he has not not fully got to grips with the faster surface, but I expect he will be too good for the struggling Andrey Golubev. The Kazakhstan Number 1 finally got back to winning ways when reaching a Semi Final in a Challenger in his home country, but Bellucci should be step too good for him and come through.
Nikolay Davydenko is not the player of 18 months ago and his groundstrokes are not as consistent as they used to be. His coach, who is also his brother, no longer travels the tour with Davydenko and he is another player coming to the end of his career as far as I can see. I still think Davydenko will be far too good for Flavio Cipolla, but the Italian has qualified for this event so his familiarity with the conditions could make this tougher than it should be.
Juan Martin Del Potro - 4.5 games vs Jarkko Nieminen: Juan Martin Del Potro will be disappointed to have lost so early in LA recently, and he will expect a good showing in Montreal at a tournament where he reached the Final in his only appearance.
His power game could be far too much for Nieminen today, especially with the Finn's serve likely to be exposed.
Del Potro beat Nieminen comfortably in their 3 previous meetings, although all of those came before the wrist injury that curtailed the Argentine's progress last year. Nieminen had won just 11 games in the 5 full sets he has played against Del Potro in previous meetings.
Ekaterina Makarova vs Rebecca Marino: Ekaterina Makarova has let me down on 2 occasions in the last few months and I am going to take her to win this match as I think the wrong favourite has been set in the match.
Makarova qualified for this event and reached the 2nd Round last year when it was held in Montreal, and she has performed on the hard courts. She reached the 2nd Round in Indian Wells before losing to Victoria Azarenka and the 3rd Round in Miami before losing to Marion Bartoli.
Rebecca Marino is playing in front of her home fans, but she is yet to make a real impact on the main WTA Tour in her young career. She has been comfortably beaten in the last two tournaments in Stanford and San Diego when coming up against the better players.
Interestingly, Marino was beaten by Makarova in Indian Wells earlier this season in 3 sets- that means Makarova has a 2-0 head to head record against her young opponent. That also includes a straight sets victory in Montreal last season in the Qualifying Rounds and I expect the more experienced player to come through again.
MY PICKS: Double; Nadia Petrova and Jelena Jankovic @ 2.20 BetFred (1 Unit)
Ekaterina Makarova @ 2.10 Ladbrokes (1 Unit)
David Nalbandian @ 2.15 Bodog (1 Unit)
Treble; Kevin Anderson, Thomaz Bellucci and Nikolay Davydenko @ 2.15 BoyleSports (1 Unit)
Juan Martin Del Potro - 4.5 games @ 1.73 Ladbrokes (2 Units)
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