I've had a pretty rough couple of days as I received some bad personal news, so I haven't seen as much of the tennis as I would have normally.
That isn't to say I haven't followed some of the results as they come through, and I was heavily disappointed that yesterday didn't produce a winning record despite looking good for a little while.
I was most disappointed with Marcos Baghdatis' collapse against Andy Murray- he got himself into a pretty strong position at 6-4, 1-1, but then decided to stop playing... I can only guess at what happened as I didn't see any of that match, but the fact of the matter is he lost seven straight games and gave the cover no chance despite getting into a decider as I imagined.
Getting almost a sets worth of games looked like it couldn't miss if the match did go into a final set, yet it was that collapse in the middle of the match that left the Cypriot short of the cover.
While that was largely irritating, the fact that Serena Williams, Roger Federer and Petra Kvitova have all made the Quarter Finals is something to keep me in a positive frame of mind. The first two players I mentioned remain strong favourites to pick up the Gold Medal, but both face awkward Quarter Finals, while Kvitova has been a little inconsistent so far this week.
I guess it will all be made a lot clearer as this tournament quickly draws to a close and the players begin looking forward to the North American hard court swing leading up to the US Open.
John Isner + 3.5 games v Roger Federer: I have a feeling this pick may just need a little bit of luck for it to come to pass, but I am sure the first set is going to end in a tie-break and so I will be hoping Roger Federer is serving first and so will likely need to break serve twice or more to cover this spread.
John Isner is one of those players that can be unplayable when he is on form with his serve and he has been playing well so far this week. He has proven his ability to push the best players on the Tour when he is serving well and I also think Roger Federer can sometimes struggle to find a rhythm when it comes to returning serve.
Federer does hold a 3-1 head to head against Isner and would have covered this spread in each of those wins, but I don't think the big American will come into this feeling any fear and he may just be able to push the World Number 1 enough to cover this spread.
Victoria Azarenka - 3.5 games v Angelique Kerber: Both of these players came through a tough test in their last match to reach this Quarter Final and both have already shown they are very comfortable on the grass courts having reached the Semi Finals at Wimbledon last month.
I think the difference between them will be that Victoria Azarenka is the better player and she is mentally in a much tougher place, while we saw signs of Angelique Kerber 'giving up' on a couple of occasions at Wimbledon and that attitude will not get the job done here.
Azarenka has had a couple of tough matches here this week, and she is playing a lot of tennis being involved in the mixed doubles as well as these singles, but I think she is going to be too consistent for Kerber who is having a good season.
Earlier this season, Azarenka won in straight sets at Indian Wells against Kerber and I think we could see something similar here.
Mardy Fish - 3.5 games v Richard Berankis: The biggest issue surrounds Mardy Fish's fitness, but he was a comfortable winner in his first game so his ankle injury must be doing better than it may have been from a couple of weeks ago.
I like his chances in this match if he is feeling better, despite the fact that Richard Berankis has had a decent hard court swing in the United States over the last couple of weeks.
However, Berankis reached the Final in LA last week and while that will give him confidence, it also means he has played a lot of tennis and that has the tendency of catching up with players that are not so used to going deep in tournaments on the Main Tour.
Berankis was crushed in the Final last week by Sam Querrey and won just 2 games in that match, but he should perform much better than that in this match. However, I still expect Mardy Fish to be too strong and can see the American recording a 6-3, 7-6 win to cover this spread.
MY PICKS: John Isner + 3.5 games @ 2.00 Paddy Power (2 Units)
Victoria Azarenka - 3.5 games @ 1.92 Paddy Power (2 Units)
Mardy Fish - 3.5 games @ 1.92 Pinnacle (2 Units)
Weekly Update: 5-7, - 3.08 Units (23 Units Staked)
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