There are still a couple of matches to be played from the Saturday Semi Finals which will give me a clearer picture as to how the week has gone.
I will update the weekly total on Sunday once the late matches in North America have been completed and I will add picks, if any, for the Finals to be played at Stanford and Atlanta at that time.
UPDATE: Kevin Anderson reached the Final of the tournament in Atlanta last night and that is good news for the outright picks as he was the one of the two picks I made this week. However, he is the underdog in the Final against John Isner and the head to head shows how close their matches are with plenty of tie-breaks involved while Isner leads 5-4.
I am hopeful that Anderson can win the title, but he has to serve a lot better than he has in the last two matches- while he has been effective behind the first serve, the percentage has been a touch low an he won't want to give Isner too many chances to get involved in his service games. Isner has also been successful in Atlanta in the past, although he has come up short in winning the title, and this should be a tight Final regardless of who comes out with the trophy.
I have also updated the weekly totals at the bottom of the page and added the pick from the Final in Umag that is played later.
Mikhail Youzhny - 3.5 games v Robin Haase: Both of these players would have appreciated the week they have had so far as they get set to contest the Final of the clay court event in Gstaad, but I believe that Mikhail Youzhny will be the player picking up the title.
This is actually the fifth time Youzhny and Robin Haase have met on the Tour and it has been comfortably one-sided in favour of the Russian who has won all four previous matches and won all ten sets they have contested.
Youzhny has an under-rated serve that can certainly help set up the points while he has the big advantage in any backhand rallies they may get involved in. While Haase has been serving well this week, this is an area of this game that can slump at times and he can be a little erratic with his ground strokes too.
I also expect Youzhny to use a little more variation as he can trade from the back of the court, but also find his way into net. His speed should be able to cut any Haase dropshots from being the difference and it feels there are a lot of factors pointing to the Russian making it five for five against Haase and finding a 64, 64 win.
Tommy Robredo v Fabio Fognini: Fabio Fognini's stunning run looked like it was coming to an end in the Semi Final yesterday as he lost a 5-0 final set lead to lose 6 games in a row to Gael Monfils and was facing match point.
However, he once again showed the battling qualities that haven't always been evident in his career, but have been in full force throughout this week and the last month. Winning three tournaments in a row in consecutive weeks is a really tough ask of any player and I just have a feeling that he might be beginning to run on fumes.
He is facing a clay court specialist in Tommy Robredo who has had a strong week after a pretty poor run of form. Robredo will look to extend the rallies, although he doesn't have a big shot that can see him put Fognini under a lot of pressure.
With the form the Italian is in, I can understand why he is a pretty strong favourite in this Final to add to the two titles he has won in the last couple of weeks, but I think if this match was played three weeks ago, Robredo would have been the favourite.
Still, you can't ignore how well Fognini has played, but this is going to be a tough Final if he is beginning to feel the effects of all the tennis he has played. I'll only have a small interest in the Spaniard to win yet another clay court title in what has been a decent career.
MY PICKS: Mikhail Youzhny - 3.5 Games @ 2.10 Pinnacle (2 Units)
Tommy Robredo @ 2.50 Stan James (1 Unit)
Weekly Update: 18-14, + 7.62 Units (62 Units Staked, + 12.29% Yield)
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