The last two weeks have produced plenty of winners when it comes to the Tennis Picks and that has also turned the 2018 season right around and into a positive position.
It has been a good period in a long season and I am hoping the tournaments to be played in Acapulco, Dubai and Sao Paulo can keep the momentum going.
Only one of those tournaments are featuring the WTA players, but it is an important week ahead of the first major event outside of the Grand Slam tournaments when the Indian Wells Masters begins in around ten days from now.
Any Picks from Acapulco will be added to this thread on Monday, but I am going to begin with a couple of Tennis Picks from the other two events being played.
Marcos Baghdatis - 1.5 games v Victor Troicki: The Dubai field used to be one of the better ones outside of the Masters and Grand Slam events on the ATP Tour, but the last couple of editions have perhaps looked underwhelming.
The same can be said this year and the First Round matches on Monday are tough to get a real feel for, although this is the one match that does stand out for me.
I like Marcos Baghdatis to beat Victor Troicki in this match between two veterans who are clearly not as good as they once were. However I think Baghdatis is perhaps still playing at a higher level than Troicki while the latter has had some disappointing performances in recent weeks.
Troicki has won the last couple of matches against Baghdatis but he was beaten in Dubai when they last played here.
I will look for Baghdatis to get past Troicki in this one with his superior returning perhaps paying dividends in this match. It could go the distance, but I will take Baghdatis to open this new week on the Tour.
Leonardo Mayer - 2.5 games v Gastao Elias: The only pick I will take from the Sao Paulo Monday First Round matches will be backing Leonardo Mayer to beat Gastao Elias on the clay courts.
There may not be as much between Mayer and Elias as the layers think, but I do think the Argentine player can get the better of this one.
Leonardo Mayer and Gastao Elias have both been serving decently, but the edge has to be given to Mayer who is able to make use of his second serve a little better than Elias. The latter has also had some issues when moving up and competing at the full ATP level and I expect that to show up at some point.
Neither player can really be considered a top returner and that is what makes this a closer match than some may think, but again Mayer may have the slight advantage.
Overall it feels like it can help him win this match and earn a cover of this number of games and I am going to back Leonardo Mayer to get it done on his way through to the Second Round.
Andrey Rublev - 1.5 games v David Ferrer: This is a match between an improving young player and a declining veteran and I am looking for Andrey Rublev to get the better of David Ferrer for the second time in 2018 on a hard court.
There is no doubt that Rublev is improving on a weekly basis, although he is far from unbeatable when he faces the top names. However there is a clear improvement on the way he has been returning and that has led to more break points being taken and I think he is going to keep Ferrer under some pressure in this one.
Ferrer's serve has always been a vulnerable part of his game, but I think the declining number have come from a slight loss of movement around the court which is making it much harder to find the depth off the ground that took him into the top five of the World Rankings. That has shown up with the percentage of points won behind serve being on the decline and Rublev should have an edge on the serve.
The Spaniard is still a dangerous returner though and that will likely mean a few chances of his own in this one and there is a potential for a third set decider to be needed. However I think Rublev might just have a little more confidence in his overall game at the moment and he can win this First Round match in Acapulco on Monday.
It could be close with a number of break points for both players, but I will look for Rublev to continue to show his improvement on the way past a veteran.
MY PICKS: Marcos Baghdatis - 1.5 Games @ 2.00 Bet Fred (2 Units)
Leonardo Mayer - 2.5 Games @ 1.72 Coral (2 Units)
Andrey Rublev - 1.5 Games @ 1.72 Paddy Power (2 Units)
Season 2018: + 20.20 Units (290 Units Staked, + 6.97% Yield)
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