Tennis Recap July 9-15

It wasn't a great week on the circuit for me, but more of that below.

It is unusual for the calender to be so busy in the week following a Grand Slam event, but the Olympic Games means a slight shift in emphasis this season and that has meant a number of tournaments are getting their events through before the players head to North America for the hard court season and preparation for the US Open.

Four years ago, the Olympics actually took place after the two Masters events in Cincinnati and Canada, but this year they are fitted in ahead of the two big tournaments and thus giving the players a little more normality in their play. The biggest issue is going to be the lack of time between the Olympic tournament and the Toronto Masters starting and the change from grass to hard courts in the space of a few days could see a lot more surprising results early in that tournament.

Anyway, here are a couple of things that have popped up from the events taking place this week.


Laura Robson's first Semi Final appearance: It was a slightly disappointing end to the tournament in Palermo for Laura Robson as she made too many errors in the loss, but the run to the Semi Final on a clay court does bode well for her development as far as I am concerned.


The only real fear for her at the moment is that she won't develop the tactical side of her game to go with all the power she has. That may make her a player like, for example, Lucie Safarova that is capable of blowing past some top players when everything is working for her, but too often fails to keep things going consistently enough to beat the rest regularly.


Now that is not to say that Safarova hasn't done well in her career already, but sometimes you have to look to achieve more especially with the talent that Robson does possess.


I am still sure that Robson is going to be the most successful British Female player for over twenty years, but I really hope the LTA and her coaches don't ruin what could be a real diamond.




Big week for Lleyton Hewitt, but the exception rather than the norm these days: Lleyton Hewitt is an under-rated player as far as I am concerned, with a lot of people likely to look back at his career and feel he won his Grand Slam titles in a small period where Pete Sampras was no longer the force of old and Roger Federer was yet to make his breakthrough on the Main Tour.


He was a real fighter back in his prime and could give a lot of players a lot of problems with his ability to turn defence into attack within a couple of shots. However, those days are long gone and I think we may look back at Newport as being a tournament where Hewitt put things together for a short while before blending into fields.


The tournament here was not exactly loaded with top-level talent either, especially the half in which Hewitt was placed, but I think it says a lot that he was still 40-1 to win the event... To me, that shows how far he is from his best.


The problem for Hewitt is that he seems to have lost a step on the court so no longer can play defence as he used to and he doesn't have the big shots to prevent falling into long rallies.


I am not sure how long the Australian has left on the circuit these days, but it was nice to see him have at least one more successful week.




Daily Picks Final: 3-8, - 6.08 Units (18 Units Staked)


Outright Picks Final: + 0.50 Units (3 Units Staked)


Week Final: - 5.58 Units (21 Units Staked)


Season 2012: + 67.54 Units (630 Units Staked, 10.7% Yield)


Season 2011: + 82.02 Units

Tennis Outright Picks July 9-15

The Grand Slam tournament at Wimbledon may be over, but that doesn't mean we are in for a quiet week on the ATP Tour as we usually experience due to the Olympic tournament being placed on the calender this year.

The Olympic Games actually means there are four ATP tournaments this week and a further two WTA events- usually this would be the week leading up to the Davis Cup ties and would only have the one event at Newport, but alas we go on.

It is no surprise that the top Men and Women players have decided to take the time off following Wimbledon, but there are still some top names like Serena Williams, David Ferrer and Janko Tipsarevic scheduled to take part in tournaments, although that is always subject to change.

With the number of tournaments taking place, I am not going to break down the tournaments as I do usually, but instead will focus on the picks I am making and why I am taking those players. I will also be making daily picks in what is a quiet sports week, but only if I find matches I like and that may not be the case every day.


The first event I will be looking at is the one in Stuttgart where Janko Tipsarevic is the top seed. However, I like the chances of Juan Monaco, the second seed, to go all the way and win his third title of the season on the clay courts.

Monaco has actually had a bounce-back season after a pretty disappointing 2011 and he has won 16 of his 21 matches on the clay courts this season, winning titles in Vina del Mar and Houston, while also reaching the Fourth Round at the French Open.

The Argentine had a decent Wimbledon where he reached the Third Round, a vast improvement in recent efforts on the grass, but he is very comfortable on the clay courts and I expect he will be fully focused knowing that he is unlikely to be in medal contention at the Olympics with that tournament also being on the grass.

Monaco has been given a bye in the First Round here in Stuttgart and he won't be displeased with his draw with his biggest challenge likely to come from either Nikolay Davydenko or Pablo Andujar in the Semi Final. Davydenko could cause problems, but Monaco is playing well enough to think he could make hay at the 5.00 being offered on him for the tournament.


The second outright pick I will be making this week is having a small interest in Sam Querrey winning the penultimate grass court event of the 2012 season at Newport. Querrey reached the Semi Final at Queens this year on the grass and the Third Round at Wimbledon before losing in an epic match against Marin Cilic, and I think he will be very focused here as the big serving American is looking to improve his Ranking following an injury hit 12 months.

That run on the grass courts has seen him beat players like Denis Istomin and Milos Raonic, two potential opponents here in Newport this year, and he is also a former Finalist here so should be happy with the conditions.

He has also been placed in the weaker half of the draw, avoiding John Isner, Milos Raonic, Ryan Harrison, Nicolas Mahut or Gilles Muller up until the Final at the earliest. I do have a couple of concerns that Querrey could potentially play Lleyton Hewitt in his own half, but I think he showed enough already on the grass to think he can make the 15.00 offered on him a little large.

An each-way interest on Querrey looks a decent shout as far as I am concerned.


I have already picked a second seed to win one of the tournaments taking place this week, and I am taking Marin Cilic to win his home event at Umag as the second seed in this one.

Like Juan Monaco, Cilic has a bye in the First Round and I think he has a fairly kind draw as long as he is motivated to win the event, something I expect him to be as he is playing in front of his own supporters.

Cilic shouldn't have a problem until he comes up against Alexandr Dolgopolov in the Semi Final, but there is no guarantee the latter will reach that stage after struggling over the last six weeks of the season.

The Final could see the Croatian come up against a top Spanish opponent with the likes of Fernando Verdasco, Juan Carlos Ferrero and Marcel Granollers on the other side of the draw. However, Cilic should be full of confidence by then and may just be able to go one step further than when he finished as Runner Up here last season.

You can get Cilic at 3.50 and I think that is worth chancing in this tournament.


Outright Picks: Juan Monaco @ 5.00 BetFred (1 Unit)
Sam Querrey @ 15.00 Bet Victor (0.5 Units E/W)
Marin Cilic @ 3.50 BetFred (1 Unit)