The last grass court event of the season came to an end last week and the Tour moves onto the biggest clay court event held in the summer with the ATP 500 tournament in Hamburg. We also get to see the first signs of the summer hard court swing with Bogota in the men's and Istanbul in the women's Tours getting underway this week.
The big names won't be in action until the tournaments held in Canada in two weeks time, but that doesn't mean there aren't some big titles to be won and the players in action will certainly feel they can pick up vital Ranking points that might set them up for a decent few weeks heading into the US Open.
ATP Bogota
This is the second year that this ATP 250 tournament in Colombia is being held and the altitude of the stadium made it a server's paradise a year ago. On that occasion, big servers like Vasek Pospisil, Kevin Anderson and Ivo Karlovic all made the Semi Finals along with home favourite Alejandro Falla and three of those four players are back to compete for the title again.
It was Ivo Karlovic who won the title twelve months ago and is the Number 2 Seed this time which means he has a bye to the Second Round, but Karlovic is also coming off a big week in Newport where he has reached the Final (playing Lleyton Hewitt as I write this).
The big man has been placed in the 'weaker' half of the draw as he looks to defend his title, although his biggest threat could be Radek Stepanek who is a potential Semi Final opponent and who has won four of their five previous meetings.
Stepanek has been in decent form over the grass court season, but he would likely have to beat a couple of home hopes to reach the Semi Final and I do think Karlovic has every chance of at least reaching the Final again. However, I will look elsewhere simply because he has had a long week in Newport and there is no telling how much energy the 35 year old will have left after making the journey down to Colombia.
This isn't the deepest draw in terms of talent so looking at the Number 1 Seed Richard Gasquet is not a surprise with his previous hard court success. He could have a difficult match against the big-serving Samuel Groth in the Second Round, his first match here, but if the Frenchman can negotiate that, I would fancy him to get to the Final at the very least.
Gasquet could also be fortunate to take on whoever comes out of the second section of the draw as they are likely to have had a number of tough matches to that point. Both Falla and Pospisil are in this mini-section, but are joined by the likes of Bernard Tomic and Adrian Mannarino who will believe they can make their way into the Semi Finals.
Tiredness may become a factor for them and backing Gasquet, who does look the cream of the talent in Bogota, is going to be my call from this tournament.
MY OUTRIGHT PICKS: Richard Gasquet @ 2.30 Bet Victor (2 Units)
Weekly Final: 6-4, + 4.04 Units (20 Units Staked, + 20.20% Yield)
Weekly Outright: 0-2, - 4 Units (4 Units Staked, - 100% Yield)
Season 2014: + 51.80 Units (1072.5 Units Staked, + 4.83% Yield)
Season 2013: + 21.74 Units (1251.5 Units Staked, + 1.73% Yield)
Season 2012: + 49.21 Units (855 Units Staked, + 5.76% Yield)
Season 2011: + 82.02 Units
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