Tennis Picks 2013 (July 10th)

The tennis tournaments move onto the Second Round in most cases, although there is some rain in Newport as I write this which is holding up proceedings there. The post-Wimbledon week is being dominated in Britain by the achievement of Andy Murray to add his second Grand Slam to his collection and there is no real sign of that buzz disappearing, although it will likely be moved off the back pages now the Ashes begins in the cricket.

It is an important week for the players that are in action this week as they can build their Ranking ahead of the Masters tournaments that will be played in North America in the first couple of weeks in August. It also gives the chance for these players to win a title and build some confidence ahead of the final Grand Slam of the season that will begin in around six weeks time from now.

The picks remained on track for a positive week as all four completed ones returned as winners, while Michael Russell was a set and a break of serve up in his match before the rain came down. Lleyton Hewitt and Gael Monfils also made it through to the Second Round as outright choices made to open the week so there are plenty of positives to take early on.

It is still early in the week so I will have to proceed with caution as the Second Round kicks off at the various tournaments being played this week.

Martin Klizan - 2.5 games v Roberto Bautista-Agut: Martin Klizan was an impressive straight sets winner over Albert Montanes in the First Round and he will feel he can take out the second Spaniard in the form of Roberto Bautista-Agut in this Second Round match.

Klizan will certainly need to improve his first serve percentage if he is to achieve that here as the first serve does give him the opportunity to win a few more cheaper points and 45% is not going to help win too many matches.

Both Klizan and Bautista-Agut will rely on their first serve in this one, but I do feel the former is a little more consistent with his rallies, even though the Spanish are known for being able to play long, drawn out rallies on the clay courts.

However, Bautista-Agut is not a traditional Spaniard in that he looks like someone who is actually a little more comfortable on the quicker surfaces than on the slower dirt and he has arguably had more success on those than the clay. He can end points quickly with the weight of his shots, but Klizan could be a little more solid and come through 64, 76.

Gael Monfils - 2.5 games v Florian Mayer: Gael Monfils came through a tough First Round match and now faces one of the home hopes in Florian Mayer who also had a hard match to get through.

Mayer has played a lot of tennis recently, winning a tournament last week and he had to use three sets to come through his First Round match. The amount of tennis in his legs could be made to feel that much heavier if Monfils plays his brand of tennis that leads to a lot of wrong rallies.

The Frenchman will believe he can outlast Mayer in this one, even if it takes three sets to do so and he has a 3-0 head to head record against him coming into this one. Before missing Wimbledon, Monfils has shown some form and I expect him to make a significant move up the World Rankings ahead of the US Open next month.

This could go three sets, but I think Monfils comes through 63, 67, 64.

Carlos Berlocq - 4.5 games v Blaz Kavcic: Carlos Berlocq is definitely back on his favourite surface and I think he can take out Blaz Kavcic in this Second Round match on Wednesday.

Berlocq came through a First Round match against Horacio Zeballos and made it look a little easier than I thought it would be. It was an impressive win and he is still on course to have his first winning season on the ATP Tour. He served well in the First Round and will feel he will win the longer rallies in this match.

His opponent came off a retirement last week, but Kavcic was a fairly comfortable winner in the First Round, although the standard of opponent has increased by a couple of levels. Kavcic doesn't really have a big weapon that will worry Berlocq on court and I think he will be forced to work a little harder to hold on to serve in this one.

I expect Berlocq to win a large majority of his first serve points and while there will be some breaks of serve for both players, I expect the Argentinian to come through 62, 64.


Igor Sijsling - 4.5 games v Yuichi Sugita: Igor Sijsling would have been disappointed that he couldn't play his tennis in the Third Round at Wimbledon after he had knocked out the dangerous Milos Raonic in the Second Round. He had to retire from the Third Round match against Ivan Dodig, but he looked back to full health in his comfortable First Round win here.

He will look to back that up against Yuichi Sugita, a surprise winner in the First Round, but one who is only playing his fifth match since an injury forced him out of a match a couple of months ago.

Sugita got his teeth into the Jesse Levine service games in the First Round, breaking eight times but thanks to a huge helping hand from the Canadian who gave up 13 double faults. A bigger concern for the Japanese player will be the six times his own serve was broken, especially against Sijsling who shouldn't be so generous on his own serve.

I would expect the Dutchman to grab at least a break more in each set and it may be a comfortable 63, 64 win for him when this one is in the books.


Double: Michael Russell v Alex Kuznetsov & Rajeev Ram v Michal Przysiezny: I am putting these two players in a double, something I rarely recommend, simply because I think both players are better than their opponents, but I don't trust either to win with enough room to cover their short spreads.

Michael Russell has dominated Alex Kuznetsov with ELEVEN straight wins against him and he has never lost a professional match to his compatriot. However, Kuznetsov has won the first set in the last two matches between them and is certainly getting closer to breaking his duck against Russell.


I also think Rajeev Ram will be too good for Michal Przysiezny who struggled against his 15 year old opponent in the First Round. Both players will likely win the vast majority of points off the first serve, but Ram has had considerable success here in the past. He is a former winner in Newport and also reached the Semi Final last year and I expect him to have a little too much know-how for his Polish opponent.

MY PICKS: Martin Klizan - 2.5 Games @ 1.90 Pinnacle (2 Units)

Gael Monfils - 2.5 Games @ 1.75 Pinnacle (2 Units)

Carlos Berlocq - 4.5 Games @ 2.00 Pinnacle (2 Units)
Igor Sijsling - 4.5 Games @ 2.00 Pinnacle (2 Units)
Michael Russell & Rajeev Ram @ 2.59 Paddy Power (1 Unit)

Weekly Update: 5-0, + 8.04 Units (9 Units Staked, + 89.33% Yield)