I didn't make any outright picks this week simply because having back to back tournaments of this size, following the one in Madrid last week, seems to bring out the pull outs much more frequently.
Players are already focusing on the French Open so any niggle or not feeling totally ready will see them withdraw, as Serena Williams did in the Semi Final here last season, and so I thought it was a little too risky to try and second guess what players are thinking.
The Woman's draw is not particularly deep when it comes to potential winners if all the big names are in the draw, and picking an outsider in the hope that a big name pulls out looks a little too hopeful to me.
On the other hand, the Men's draw has a lot of uncertainty about it because of the lack of matches the likes of Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer had last week in Rome. All three will want to get some practice under their belts, but all three could have turned their attention to Roland Garros already.
With these doubts in my own mind, I figured it would be best to enjoy this week from an outright point of view and get some more samples of players forms heading into the next Grand Slam of the season.
That doesn't mean I won't make any picks from the daily matches taking place, although I would take note of the awful weather that is coming to the tournament here in the coming days. I will also update the season totals after the last week in Madrid in my post for the Wednesday matches.
Lukas Rosol v Victor Troicki: Janko Tipsarevic has pulled out the tournament this week and that means Lukas Rosol was given a 'Lucky Loser' berth and I expect he can make full use of that by progressing through to the Second Round at least.
This has clearly been a good match up for Rosol as he has won the last three matches between these players, all on clay courts, including a very comfortable 3 and 1 win in Bucharest last month. Rosol has a serve that can earn him enough cheap points in this match and that is a foundation from which he can attack the Troicki service games.
The problem for the Serb is that he can be very erratic on the ground and that provides opportunities for his opponents to break his serve. Despite this being one of his more favoured surfaces in terms of results, I think Troicki will likely fall to a defeat in this one.
Marin Cilic - 2.5 games v Kevin Anderson: I am a big fan of what Marin Cilic can do on a tennis court and I think he can get through the big-serving Kevin Anderson in an intriguing Second Round match.
Cilic snapped a three game losing run with a comfortable win over Andrey Golubev on Monday and he has beaten Anderson on all three previous meetings. That doesn't surprise me as I personally think Cilic is one of the more effective returners on the circuit and I think he can negate the big serve that Anderson does possess.
I would very much favour the Croatian when it comes to the rallies on the floor so I think he definitely has the edge in this match up and I do like Cilic's chances of coming through with a 4 and 4 win.
Agnieszka Radwanska - 4.5 games v Simona Halep: I know that Agnieszka Radwanska was thumped by Laura Robson last week in Madrid, but I think the conditions here in Rome will favour the Pole a lot more than it did last week.
I also think the match up with Simona Halep is definitely much more to the liking of Radwanska than the one with Robson- the difference between Halep and Robson is the latter is very much capable of taking the racquet out of an opponent's hands with her groundstrokes and serve.
In this match, I expect Radwanska to get involved in the long, drawn out rallies that she enjoys and I expect her to grind down Halep as she has done in all three wins over her in the past. With good memories of playing this opponent, I expect Radwanska will do enough to record a 4 and 3 win.
MY PICKS: Lukas Rosol @ 1.85 Pinnacle (2 Units)
Marin Cilic - 2.5 Games @ 1.95 Pinnacle (2 Units)
Agnieszka Radwanska - 4.5 Games @ 1.95 Pinnacle (2 Units)
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