The last three days in Barcelona were just the kind of break I needed, especially after hearing that the weather in London had been pretty poor since Thursday morning. The sporting world doesn't shut down for a break though and there were big news stories in the last couple of days with LeBron James making a huge decision to return home and Luis Suarez leaving English football to sign with Barcelona (happened day after I visited the Nou Camp so none of the obvious photos of me biting into his new Barcelona top).
At the same time, this week's tennis have reached the Final stage of their events, including Stuttgart which I thought was going to be in trouble thanks to all the rain in the area. The bad news for the picks was the fact that both John Isner and Fernando Verdasco failed to reach the business end of their respective tournaments in Newport and Bastad, the latter in the more disappointing fashion having lost in the Semi Final despite being a strong favourite to win the title.
Ivo Karlovic v Lleyton Hewitt: The Final in Newport brings together two players who have a real history with one another on the grass courts, albeit not at this event.
Ivo Karlovic produced a seismic shock as a relative unknown when beating defending Wimbledon Champion Lleyton Hewitt in the First Round back in 2003 and has since won four of their five meetings. Three of those wins came on the grass courts of Wimbledon and Queens, while the sole win for Hewitt was at Roland Garros when he was forced to come from two sets down to beat the giant Croatian.
Over the years, Hewitt has loved playing the big servers as he trusted his return to make life as awkward as possible for them, while his defensive skills meant he could force them to hit one more shot than they wanted to. Those skills have deteriorated over the last few years and he struggled against Feliciano Lopez and Jerzy Janowicz during this grass court season, while Karlovic has always had the kryptonite to beat Hewitt.
Both players have been in good form this week to reach the Final, the third time in a row that Lleyton Hewitt has done that in Newport. However, Hewitt has come up short the last two times he has played in the Final, including missing a real chance against Nicolas Mahut last season after being a set and a break up.
Hewitt makes too many errors these days and I also think Karlovic holds a mental edge over him, while the serve reaches such heights that the Australian can struggle to deal with it. In all honesty, I am not sure why the big man is the underdog in this match and I like him to take the title home.
MY PICK: Ivo Karlovic @ 2.05 Pinnacle (2 Units)
Weekly Update: 6-3, + 6.04 Units (18 Units Staked, + 33.56% Yield)
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