Tennis Picks February 13th

This is the first day of the new tournaments starting this week in Rotterdam, San Jose, Sao Paulo, Doha and Bogota as the ATP and WTA Tours both getting back to a normal schedule after a couple of stop-start weeks following the Australian Open.

There are a huge number of matches scheduled for tomorrow, in particular the WTA event in Doha which has a big field taking part, so I will post up any picks I make on this thread at least a couple of hours before the matches I pick will take place.

I will be updating my Twitter page during the course of the day when picks are made as the layers could be a little slower off the mark with the events taking place in the United States and Brazil, although I have noticed they are at least getting their act together when it comes to the event in Holland.

Keep an eye on this post and Twitter (@DavAulak) for the picks on this date.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova - 4.5 games vs Ksenia Pervak: I like the young Russian player in this match, despite her not playing since the Australian Open, as I still believe she is going to step up to the next level on the WTA Tour this season.

She does have a decent all round game, although her movement is still a little suspect.

However, she plays Ksenia Pervak, a player that has lost all 3 matches she has played in 2012, and one that has struggled to really compete with the better players on tour although she is still only 20 years old.

The fact that she is a left-hander could cause some early problems, but Pavluchenkova has beaten her comfortably before, and I think she will be too strong here in a 6-4, 6-2 win.

Feliciano Lopez - 2 games vs Paul-Henri Mathieu: Now this could be seen as a little risky as Feliciano Lopez is one of the vulnerable seeds I spoke about in my outright preview, but I do think he will be a little too strong for the Frenchman coming back from an injury.

Mathieu did beat two seeded players in the Qualifying to get through to this match, so he has got a little bit of form about him, but he is still a little inconsistent in his play from what I saw of him in recent weeks and I think Lopez should be able to take care of him in straight sets that should allow him to cover this spread on offer.

It is a slightly risky pick as Lopez doesn't always give the impression of someone that is trying to win matches and can look a little lethargic, but he has shown enough this season to think he should win this match against a player that has lost to players a lot weaker than the Spaniard in his comeback bid.

Frederico Gil - 4 games vs Javier Marti: This looks like an interesting match at the Brazil Open today, but I am going to be backing the Portuguese player to come through as I think he is the better of the two on the clay courts at this stage of their careers.

Javier Marti is a young Spanish player, so it is a surprise to see him playing in indoor hard court events and hard court events early in 2012 rather than the clay courts. Last season Marti, who has just turned 20, finished 17-16 on the clay courts in the Challenger and qualifying circuit and he was beaten in the 1st Round of the two main tour events he entered.

While he probably favours clay courts, he is facing a player that who has shown he is very comfortable on the surface. Gil reached the Quarter Final at the Masters event in Monte Carlo last season on this surface, although he was only 8-9 in main tour events.

However, his Quarter Final run in Chile recently saw him dispose of Pablo Andujar, an adept clay court player, in straight sets for the loss of just 3 games and any replication of that form would see him come through this match fairly comfortably too.

I think his experience will prove telling for Marti, whose most recent tournament was in Russia on an indoor hard court, and I think Gil wins 6-4, 6-2.

Svetlana Kuznetsova - 4.5 games vs Maria-Jose Martinez Sanchez: Kuznetosva is a hard player to get a feel for these days as she throws in a lot of poor performances, but then can look like a world-beater in other matches.

I think she will be too strong for Maria-Jose Martinez Sanchez who is making her first appearance of 2012 after suffering a knee injury at the back end of last season. Sanchez is no fool on a tennis court, and her lefty serve can cause problems, but I think it is tough to return from a long lay off against someone of the calibre of Kuznetsova.

The Russian is also the stronger hard court player and it all seems to point to her winning this with a bit of room to spare. She performed very well on the hard courts of Dubai last season so can handle the conditions in the Middle East and I think she will have the opportunity to run away with the match after a tight first set.

I'll back her and look for her to come through 7-5, 6-2.


MY PICKS: Anastasia Pavyluchenkova - 4.5 games @ 2.00 Pinnacle (2 Units)
Feliciano Lopez - 2 games @ 1.90 Pinnacle (2 Units)
Frederico Gil - 4 games @ 1.95 TitanBet (2 Units)
Svetlana Kuznetsova - 4.5 games @ 1.80 SkyBet (2 Units)