Tennis Picks August 8th

It is the first day of the Masters in Montreal and the big event in the WTA in Toronto and there are plenty of matches going on. The big players will not be starting until tomorrow at the earliest, but we do have a couple of matches that could be of interest.

On to the Picks:

Double; Nadia Petrova vs Jarmila Gajdosova and Jelena Jankovic vs Julia Goerges: This is a interesting double, but I think both players are more than capable of coming through tough tests.

Nadia Petrova won a hard court event in Washington recently and was also in form at Wimbledon where she reached the 4th Round. The hard courts favour her big hitting play and she could take advantage of a struggling Jarmila Gajdosova. The Australian lost early in San Diego last week and has lost 3 matches in a row, while she also exited early in tournaments at Indian Wells and Miami.

Petrova beat Gajdosova in their only previous meeting on the hard courts of Seoul.

Jelena Jankovic has always performed well on the hard courts and she reached the Quarter Final in Miami and the 4th Round in Indian Wells. She has not played since Wimbledon, but is playing Julia Goerges who is very much out of form after a very good clay court season.

Jankovic has beaten Goerges in both their career meetings, including in Miami earlier this season.


David Nalbandian vs Stanislas Wawrinka: David Nalbandian does look like a player that is coming towards the end of his career and I also think he must be thinking about retiring and how much more he wants from the game.

He lost early in Washington last week against the reinvigorated James Blake, but I think Nalbandian can get the better of Wawrinka today.

The Swiss Number 2 has played a couple of matches since Wimbledon, but this will be his first match on the hard courts of North America during this Summer. He has lost some surprising matches of late, including to Simone Bolelli at Wimbledon and Marcel Granollers at Gstaad, and he also lost early in Miami.

Wawrinka lost early in Toronto and Cincinnati last season, but importantly he lost to David Nalbandian in Washington in his first match on the hard courts in the Summer.

That was the last time Nalbandian and Wawrinka played and now leaves the head to head 5-3 in favour of the Swiss player. Wawrinka had won 5 matches in a row before the defeat in Washington and the head to head is 1-1 on the hard courts of North America.

I wouldn't go crazy on this one, but I am going to have a small interest on Nalbandian winning this match.


Treble; Kevin Anderson vs Pablo Andujar, Thomaz Bellucci vs Andrey Golubev and Nikolay Davydenko vs Flavio Cipolla: This treble should be able to come through, but I am again going to keep stakes to a minimum considering the 3 favourites are all inconsistent and capable of throwing in a shocking match to lose.

Kevin Anderson should be able to take care of the predominantly clay court player Pablo Andujar, and has an easy straight sets victory over the Spaniard in Miami earlier this year.

Thomaz Bellucci is getting a little better on the hard courts, although he has not not fully got to grips with the faster surface, but I expect he will be too good for the struggling Andrey Golubev. The Kazakhstan Number 1 finally got back to winning ways when reaching a Semi Final in a Challenger in his home country, but Bellucci should be step too good for him and come through.

Nikolay Davydenko is not the player of 18 months ago and his groundstrokes are not as consistent as they used to be. His coach, who is also his brother, no longer travels the tour with Davydenko and he is another player coming to the end of his career as far as I can see. I still think Davydenko will be far too good for Flavio Cipolla, but the Italian has qualified for this event so his familiarity with the conditions could make this tougher than it should be.


Juan Martin Del Potro - 4.5 games vs Jarkko Nieminen: Juan Martin Del Potro will be disappointed to have lost so early in LA recently, and he will expect a good showing in Montreal at a tournament where he reached the Final in his only appearance.

His power game could be far too much for Nieminen today, especially with the Finn's serve likely to be exposed.

Del Potro beat Nieminen comfortably in their 3 previous meetings, although all of those came before the wrist injury that curtailed the Argentine's progress last year. Nieminen had won just 11 games in the 5 full sets he has played against Del Potro in previous meetings.


Ekaterina Makarova vs Rebecca Marino: Ekaterina Makarova has let me down on 2 occasions in the last few months and I am going to take her to win this match as I think the wrong favourite has been set in the match.

Makarova qualified for this event and reached the 2nd Round last year when it was held in Montreal, and she has performed on the hard courts. She reached the 2nd Round in Indian Wells before losing to Victoria Azarenka and the 3rd Round in Miami before losing to Marion Bartoli.

Rebecca Marino is playing in front of her home fans, but she is yet to make a real impact on the main WTA Tour in her young career. She has been comfortably beaten in the last two tournaments in Stanford and San Diego when coming up against the better players.

Interestingly, Marino was beaten by Makarova in Indian Wells earlier this season in 3 sets- that means Makarova has a 2-0 head to head record against her young opponent. That also includes a straight sets victory in Montreal last season in the Qualifying Rounds and I expect the more experienced player to come through again.


MY PICKS: Double; Nadia Petrova and Jelena Jankovic @ 2.20 BetFred (1 Unit)
Ekaterina Makarova @ 2.10 Ladbrokes (1 Unit)
David Nalbandian @ 2.15 Bodog (1 Unit)
Treble; Kevin Anderson, Thomaz Bellucci and Nikolay Davydenko @ 2.15 BoyleSports (1 Unit)
Juan Martin Del Potro - 4.5 games @ 1.73 Ladbrokes (2 Units)

Tennis Picks 1st August Washington and San Diego

With matches taking place on 2 continents again this week, I will once again divide the tennis picks into two sections and then combine the profit/loss at the end of the week.

I didn't really have any fancies from the tournament in Austria, either outright or on day 1, and so I gave it a miss. The tournaments in Washington and San Diego consist of bigger fields meaning we are given more opportunities at this early stage and I have got a few picks for later today:

Double: Ekaterina Makarova vs Alexa Glatch and Elena Baltacha vs Melanie Oudin: Both of these favourites are not the most reliable players on the tour, but I do expect them to have too much for their young American opponents tonight.

Ekaterina Makarova is ranked at Number 42 in the World, but it says something about the WTA Tour that she only has a 27-35 record on the main tour over the last 2 seasons. However, I have picked her to come through as the majority of her success has come on the hard courts this season and it took the likes of Marion Bartoli and Victoria Azarenka to stop her earlier runs in Miami and Indian Wells respectively.

Alexa Glatch is another of the young American players trying to break through but her best performances have come in the levels below the main tour matches and she was beaten in the qualifiers at Stanford last week.

The other part of my double is picking the British Number 1, Elena Baltacha, to come through. I am not a fan of picking the British players (except Andy Murray) as they just dont seem to be able to compete with the top players in the game. However, Baltacha has improved her tennis over the last couple of years and must be able to dispose of a completely out of sorts Melanie Oudin.

Oudin made her breakthrough for the general public at the US Open when she reached the Quarter Final while beating Elena Dementieva and Maria Sharapova along the way. Since then she has struggled with her performances and this season has been incredibly tough for her.

She has a 7-20 record on the main tour and has lost 6 of her last 7 matches and it has got me wondering if she is mentally in a good place. Oudin also struggled at this time of the season last year when she finished with a 3-6 record during the hard court Summer swing.

Personally I would not want to watch this match as I can imagine there are a lot of breaks of serves and I think the quality of tennis may be a little disappointing.


Double; Donald Young vs Artem Sitak and Rajeev Ram vs Matthew Ebden: As I said for the pick above, these two favourites cannot be relied upon when it comes down to the crunch but they face opponents that they should be able to take advantage of.

Donald Young was a child prodigy, being so good that John McEnroe offered to be his coach before he had even turned professional- to say his career has been a disappointment so far is an understatement.

I am actually backing him to beat Artem Sitak as he has a 2-0 head to head record against him, both wins coming on the hard courts, and his opponent has barely played on the lower level tours this season.

Sitak's recent defeats to Wayne Odesnik and Tim Smyczek show what is to be expected and I still think Young is a bit better than those players so should be able to come through.

Rajeev Ram relies on his serve to come through matches and he might just be able to confirm the form over Matthew Ebden after recently beating him in the qualifiers for Atlanta and then reaching the Quarter Finals.

I actually saw Ebden play up close and personal at Queens this year and he has a decent game although he is a little inconsistent off the ground. If he serves well he can cause problems, but he can lose concentration and will give up chances that Ram may take capitalise on.


Marinko Matosevic vs Richard Berankis: This is a pick more against Berankis than it is backing Matosevic.

Berankis has had a back injury that forced him to miss the middle part of the season and has lost both matches since returning although against tough opponents Nicolas Mahut and Ryan Harrison.

Matosevic has already got a couple of qualifying wins under his belt here in Washington and that means he could have more of an edge being familiar with the conditions. The Australian failed to qualify for Los Angeles last week, but a win over Igor Kunitsyn in Atlanta shows he is playing fairly well.

Berankis beat Matosevic in straight sets at the Australian Open, but I will have a small interest that the head to head is levelled up here as Berankis returns from an injury.


Michael Russell vs Ivo Karlovic: I am backing yet another underdog here for the sole reason that I want to back against the favourite.

Ivo Karlovic still has a couple of runs in tournaments left in him, but it is clear in my mind that he has lost half a step on the court which makes his serve-volley game a little more erratic than it used to be. He still serves from a tree, but I think he is half a step short on returns making it easier for his opponents to get a second shot after the initial volley.

He did reach the Quarter Final in Miami this year, but he has lost in the 1st Round in 10 of the 15 tournaments he has entered. Karlovic has gone 1-6 since losing in the Semi Final in Houston in April.

Michael Russell is definitely come towards the end of his career, but he will enjoy the home support here and is still capable of spring a surprise as shown by his win over Dmitry Tursunov last week. The hard courts remain Russell's favourite surface so I do think he has a genuine chance to cause a mini-shock here.

They share a 1-1 head to head record, but it was Michael Russell who won their most recent meeting on the indoor hard courts of Memphis earlier this season.


MY PICKS: Double; Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Baltacha @ 2.21 William Hill (1 Unit)
Double; Donald Young and Rajeev Ram @ 2.01 Pinnacle (1 Unit)
Marinko Matosevic @ 2.10 BetFred (1 Unit)
Michael Russell @ 2.10 Stan James (1 Unit)

Wimbledon Day 1 Picks

The third Grand Slam of the year is upon us and it is one of my favourite tournaments, especially being so close to the event.

The weather forecast for the first week is disappointing to say the least, and it will be the first year when the roof on Centre Court will be used heavily in my opinion. Tomorrow we are to expect consistent rain for much of the day and I have a feeling that a lot of matches will have to be postponed for Tuesday.

Worryingly for the organisers, Tuesday seems to be the only day where rain is not forecasted and we may just see play on the middle Sunday, a day usually reserved for rest.

It also looks like a tough opening day to make picks, with plenty of very short prices around while the handicaps are set almost perfectly to leave me doubtful of the outcome. However, I will play a couple of picks from today.

Now on to the picks from Day 1:


Fernando Verdasco - 3 games vs Radek Stepanek: Fernando Verdasco does not have the best pedigree on the grass courts, but he has had plenty of practice this season as he gets ready for Wimbledon. A win over David Nalbandian at Queens shows he does have the capabilities to produce good results on the surface.

Radek Stepanek has had a decent couple of weeks on the grass courts, but he is not at the same level as a couple of years ago. He may well cause problems for a little while, but the strength of Verdasco's shots are sure to give him the edge.

The head to head is 3-2 in favour of Stepanek, but it is Verdasco who has won the last 2 meetings. Verdasco has won the last 5 sets played against Stepanek for the loss of just 8 games.

Stepanek did beat Verdasco in 5 sets here in 2006, but I think the players have moved in separate directions since then, and I do think the Spaniard will move forward.


Four Fold: Feliciano Lopez vs Michael Berrer, Richard Gasquet vs Santiago Giraldo, Ekaterina Makarova vs Christine McHale and Jelena Jankovic vs Maria-Jose Martinez Sanchez: I hate putting more than a treble in for tennis picks but I feel all 4 players have a good chance of progressing here.

Feliciano Lopez has performed well at Wimbledon in the past and I think he will be too strong in a tight match with Michael Berrer.

Richard Gasquet has not played competitive tennis since the French Open, but should have too much nous for his Colombian opponent.

Ekaterina Makarova has shown some real good grass court pedigree this year following on from a win at Eastbourne last year.

Jelena Jankovic is the most worrying pick against an opponent that has a winning record head to head against her. Jankovic has also not played since the French Open so may take a little time getting used to the grass. However, she has played well on the surface in previous years and I fancy her to get the job done in 2 tight sets.


MY PICKS: Fernando Verdasco - 3 games @ 1.90 Pinnacle (2 Units)
Four Fold: Feliciano Lopez, Richard Gasquet, Ekaterina Makarova and Jelena Jankovic to win @ 2.41 Pinnacle (1 Unit)