Spain v Czech Republic - The tie is played on clay indoors in Barcelona and the hosts will have huge advantage on the surface and at home. Spain will be represented by Nadal and Ferrer in singles and Verdasco and Lopez in doubles while the visitors will have Stepanek and Berdych for the single matches and Hajek/Stepanek and Dlouhy in doubles. Of all four singles players Stepanek is in the best form as he is 12-5 after the US Open while Ferrer is just 4-4 and Nadal is 10-6. Ferrer struggled with a leg injury and he has not played competitive tennis since early November. He is a very good clay courter and he does great on the slow surface as he is a solid defender and good on the ground. He lacks match practice recently and he might struggle against a tricky player like Stepanek. He is 1-1 against him on clay, but his victory on the red dirt came at Roland Garros in five sets and he would have lost the match if it was a three-setter. Stepanek played great recently getting to the semis in Basel and Paris, but all that matches were on indoors hard, which is his best surface. He is a net rusher with flat shots and big serve. He has great volleys and he does relatively well on clay too. He has a chance to get a victory over Ferrer, but he might not be able to touch Nadal on clay. Berdych is not in great shape and he is a powerful attacking player who likes faster surfaces. He has a weak mentality and he does not like facing defensive opponents who force the extra shots from him as he often has trouble in finishing points and keeping concentration. He has a bad record against top 10 opponents and he trails Nadal 3-5 with all his victories coming on fast surfaces. We assume that Nadal should be able to raise his game and win both matches. In doubles the Czech have a better team and they might clinch it so it will all depend on how Ferrer does. Stepanek has a chance to beat Ferrer even on clay and so it will all come to the face off by Berdych and Ferrer. The Spaniard has the tactical advantage there and he leads the Czech 3-2 on clay. His game is much better suited for clay, but it all depends on his match performance. We cannot be sure about him and we definitely find no value in backing Spain as the big favorite. We will wait for the matches to develop and might consider backing Berdych in the final match if it is decisive, but until then we will not bet on this tie.

Djokovic v Soderling - Djokovic played a shaky match against Davydenko and he admitted afterwards that his opponent was the better player for most of the match. However, the Serbian held his composure and managed to prolong his winning streak. He also admitted of having some breathing and fitness problems which handicapped his movement on court. He should be used to the courts and over those problems at the moment. He is an aggressive player and he had a great baseline battle with Davydenko who also plays fast and powerful attacking tennis. Soderling is also a short rally player with big shots and tendency to finish points quickly. He is the lucky one to have taken advantage of Roddick's withdrawal and he used it to full extent by beating Nadal in the opening round. He played his usual powerful baseline game and he used the bouncy and slow court well to his advantage. Soderling played better in his first match, but he had the easier opponent in terms of tactics and style. Djokovic faced a in-form aggressive player while the Swede handled the slower and more defensive Nadal. Djokovic should be ready for another powerful hitter like Soderling and the Swede might have trouble switching his game to face a more powerful and pressing opponent. Djokovic has won all five matches between the two including two this season and he obviously has a way to handle the Swede. Soderling is not good at turning bad trends around so we cannot see him winning this one.

Nadal v Davydenko - Nadal played a passive and overall bad match against Soderling and naturally he lost. He stayed back and left the Swede to pound his big shots and his serve was weak and harmless. He is not in top form despite claiming to be so and despite the surface favoring his style he obviously struggles with movement and his usual baseline efficiency has turned into an erratic battle. Davydenko also made a number of errors against Djokovic and despite a great start he could not hold his level and lost at the end. The Russian is a great baseliner with early ball taking style and very aggressive shots. He likes to move his opponents around and his form is great at the moment. He has the skills to make Nadal run and in the current condition of the Spaniard we do not see Nadal making an efficient counter strike. Davydenko took quick care of Nadal in Shanghai and despite trailing 3-4 against the Spaniard he is in fact leading 3-1 on faster surfaces. Both played shaky tennis in their first matches, but nevertheless Davydenko looked sharp and dangerous while Nadal showed nothing special. The Spaniard needs to improve fast becasue if his serve and baseline game stay as weak as against Soderling he will get overpowered once again by a good and powerful returner like Davydenko. We do not believe Nadal will be able to get his A game back, but the odds on his opponent present no value so we will stay away from this match.

Nadal v Soderling – Rafael Nadal claims to be in perfect shape heading into the season ending Masters Cup in London. "I'm in perfect shape, both mentally and physically," Nadal said. "I've had the best end of the season in my life." He reckons to be close to his best tennis but it didn’t look anything close to that during his semi-final defeat in Paris by Djokovic. But looking in his past results the Spaniard is right. He is 10-3 post-US Open with two semi-final and one final appearance. At the same stage the past three seasons he was 5-2 in 2008, 6-2 in 2007 and 3-2 in 2006. Only in 2005 he went 10-0 with two titles in Beijing and Madrid. The last month he was a bit slower than usual and erratic at times with untypically high amount of unforced errors. Robin Soderling, No. 9 ranked, entered the Masters Cup due to the withdrawal of American Andy Roddick. Soderling reached the quarter-final or better in every tournament he played after US Open (total five) but failed to pass the semi-finals. He shows plenty of consistency using well his most dangerous weapons – the powerful serve and big forehand. He prefers to set high-tempo tennis and attack at every opportunity. The Swede tends to struggle against players who give him no rhythm but improved his mental resistance mostly with the help of Magnus Norman, his current coach. Soderling has had problems with his elbow the last time he played. But according to Norman, he is playable in London. “It is no worse now than before and he feels in good shape. He has received treatment by a physiotherapist every day since the Stockholm Open and it has worked really well,” said Norman, the only Swede who previously played ATP finals. Soderling has only one career victory over Nadal in four attempts but it came at Roland Garros fourth round to stop the Spaniard longtime domination in the French capital. The outcome of this match-up is difficult to be predicted. Both are carrying some fitness troubles but still fight hard and give their best. Nadal should have the edge but the surface is more likely to favour the big-serving Swede. Soderling is a strong starter but his level tends to drop if the match goes to the distance. We don’t feel confident placing bets on this match and our advice is to stay away from risking money.

Djokovic v Davydenko – Novak Djokovic is the man in-form heading into the season ending Masters Cup in London. The Serbian has 76-18 W-L record for the year with most wins than any other player. He is 51-10 on hard courts with four of his five titles coming on fast surfaces this season. Djokovic is a complete baseliner with full range of weapons. He improved a lot this year and has developed as one of the best players tactically-wise. He can be defensive or offensive whenever he needs it which explains his ability to perform controlled aggression. His confidence should be high, but he is staying firm on the ground. "The one who says there is no fear at all will lie to you," said defending champion Djokovic. "There is always some kind of nervousness in yourself before the match."Nikolay Davydenko had about 10 days to recover in time and be fresh for his Masters Cup campaign. The Russian called for the trainer while trailing 2-5 in the first set against Soderling in Paris. He was feeling sick and was given a pill but was unable to prevent his Swede from closing out the set and then the match in three sets. Davydenko is 53-18 in 2009 with two titles from six tournaments after US Open. He is an aggressive type of player taking the ball early and looking to attack in every opportunity. He can create excellent angles while constantly changes directions forcing opponents to run a lot behind the baseline. On his way to winning the Shanghai Masters Davydenko beat Djokovic at the semi-finals to level their recent meetings score 2-2. Djokovic posted his two victories last year in Shanghai season ending event – once in the group and then at the final. Davydenko is a strong starter while Djokovic might feel a bit nervous with all the attention being on him as a defending champion and best form player. The Russian is fresher both mentally and physically and we feel the odds are too high on him. We are happy to place medium bet on a Russian victory at odds above 3.0

The ATP Masters Cup in London is the last major tennis tournament in 2009 calendar excluding Davis Cup final. It is played for the first time in the English capital. The surface is Greenset indoors hard court which is medium fast and high bouncing. Only two of the top eight players taking part in this season edition have won the Masters Cup before - Federer four times and Djokovic once.

Murray v Del Potro – Andy Murray made an impressive first time appearance during last year ATP Masters Cup in Shanghai winning all his three round robin matches including a confident display against Federer despite the Brit already had booked his place in the semi-finals. But then he ran out of gas and was eliminated at the semi-final by the eventual runner-up Nikolay Davydenko. Murray established himself steadily in top 4 players of the world and improved both his play and results this season compared to the last (64-11 W-L record, 45-6 on hard courts). His six 2009 titles mark one more than the previous year and his achievement of losing only one final (to Nadal at Indian Wells) is truly remarkable. "My consistency this year has been superb. Physically I've felt like I've been a lot better this year. I've not had any real let-downs in any tournaments except in Rome - I've lost one first round the whole year, which is better than previous years," admitted the Brit. His game is a combination of low-paced and fast-paced shots, changing the pace often and giving his opponents no rhythm. His backhand is his biggest strength, and almost never breaks down. Murray is extremely consistent and loves long rallies. The pressure of playing in London in front of own fans will be enormous but he has proved before while competing at Queens and Wimbledon that he can be tackle the pressure successfully. Juan Martin Del Potro had troubles with his abdominal strain in Paris 10 days ago and pulled out of his quarter-final match against Radek Stepanek. He also looked tired and a bit rusty which had negative effects on his power and shot accuracy. Del Potro about retiring in Paris: "I do not think this will affect me to go to London. I'm not very upset with this problem. I wanted to play, but I felt the pain and I left it there ..." The Argentinean possesses the necessary skills not only to break down Murray but to win the tournament. Unfortunately his momentum after claiming US Open crown is gone while his fitness is not in top shape. Murray has the edge with his better physical condition and solid baseline game. The odds are about right – 1.40/1.45 for a British victory and we will skip betting on the opening match of ATP Masters Cup.

Federer v Verdasco – There is only a slightest of a chance to see Federer being dethroned of his No. 1 status this year and Nadal is the only one who can achieve that but it will be very difficult, so the Swiss heads to London in a strong position to master a record fifth ATP Masters Cup title. During practice in London Federer was looking his usual self hitting with Soderling for two hours (match play – tight match with the two hitting very well). He had a shocking first round exit in Paris against Benneteau, who being 46 ranked in the world was the lowest ranked player to have knocked out Federer this season and besides Wawrinka, the only player outside Top 10 to beat the World No. 1. Federer is undoubtedly the best shot maker in the game and possibly the last ‘one-handed backhand’ player to hold the No. 1 position in ATP rankings. His body language and fast legs allow him to easily turn defence into offence and finish points early at the net. Fernando Verdasco’s recent form is good as he reached the semi-finals in Valencia, the final in Kuala Lumpur and the quarter-finals in Beijing. But his post-Wimbledon Masters participation has been below par – 3-4 W-L record. He is an attacking baseliner with powerful leftie forehand and serve. The Spaniard tends to keep high first serve percentage and has excellent serve variety changing directions and keeping his initial shot quite difficult to read. The variety on his forehand is also excellent, and tactically he is improving but still needs to work in order to shorten the gap with the top 4 in the world. Many people think about Federer’s backhand as a liability but his backhand slice especially short in the court is a great strength and will put opponents in uncomfortable positions and making it difficult for them to take complete control of rallies. Verdasco will try to take advantage of his cross-court left-handed forehands going straight into Federer backhand but they will hardly trouble the Swiss. Instead, it is the Spaniard who tends to struggle against players who change pace up and down. Federer holds a confident 3-0 head-to-head advantage and is yet to lose a set. Verdasco lacks the self-belief when facing top opposition and has too much respect towards Federer to be able to play tactically-wise. The odds on Federer are very poor and do not deserve any attention.

Benneteau v Petzschner – Julien Benneteau at the age of 27 is very experienced on fast surfaces and has good volleys plus the ability to change tactics, vary his shots and even serve-and-volley indoors. He is ranked 48 in the world and last month had a career high No. 33 ranking which enables him to enter the BNP Parisbas Masters main draw for a second time in his career. He reached R16 in 2006 beating Santoro and Gonzalez before losing to Ancic. Benneteau is 24-26 in 2009 and enjoys playing in France. Philipp Petzschner withdrew from singles in Vienna with a calf injury but then entered the main draw in Basel. The German has been bothered by a shoulder injury too. He is on a five-match losing streak and it’s difficult to see any light in the tunnel after all those fitness worries. Otherwise Petzschner is a good indoors player as he has a solid serve and good volleys. He slices a lot his backhand shots and runs to the net as whenever possible. All the information and current form points to only one winner – Julien Benneteau and it’s worth backing him at odds 1.4 and above. Petzschner struggles with form and fitness and simply waits for the end of season.

Chardy v Monaco – Jeremy Chardy is a good all-court player with solid ground game and attacking style. His serve is powerful and difficult to return. He is not a serve & volley type of player but has an idea how to play close to the net. His form has not been good lately (5-8 since the end of clay court season), but he really impressed against James Blake last week in Basel. Juan Monaco struggled with hip injury in Asia, but he managed to overcome it and played indoors in Lyon, Stockholm and Valencia. He got a victory in every place he took part in. He defeated low ranked players like Vassallo, Hernych and Ouanna. Monaco is a good baseliner with solid defense and powerful ground strokes. He prefers slower surfaces where he has more time to set up his shots. He lacks enough experience indoors, but he has competitive baseline skills. A typical weakness for Monaco is his one-dimensional serve and opponents seem to adjust easily to his first shot. So it will account to several breaks. The final outcome lies totally in Chardy’s back yard. The question is if the Frenchman can play an attacking tennis with controlled aggression and wait for the most convenient moment to set up his winning shots. He did that well last week and is deservedly a favourite to do it again.

Almagro v Chiudinelli – Nicolas Almagro backs up a powerful serve with fairly good attacking ground game. He makes a lot of aces on fast surfaces with his useful kick serve and has very powerful attacking forehand. His one-handed backhand is nothing special to be mention. He spends the majority of his playing time on clay courts and thus his indoors experience is limited to 3-8 for the last five seasons in main draw events. Marco Chiudinelli is the biggest surprise of the year so far. His career was about to be ruined by injuries a year ago and he slipped outside Top 500 in the rankings but third round appearance at US Open starting from qualifications and quarter-final in Bangkok starting from qualifications adds to his semi-final in Basel and here he goes to No. 55 in the world. The Swiss definitely deserves it with his solid performance so far. Chiudinelli has a strong serve and decent baseline approach. Together with his growing confidence comes variety as he tries different strategies on the court. He was competitive against Federer last week losing just 6-7 3-6. Everything points to Chiudinelli victory over Almagro since form, surface and confidence all go into his direction. It is no surprise to see odds dropping fast on a Swiss victory.

Lopez F v Clement – Feliciano Lopez is strong and powerful left-hander who is very well suited to playing on fast surfaces especially indoors. Before the final part of the tennis season Lopez was having a bad season by his own standards winning a Challenger his best achievement, but then he reached the semi-final in Shanghai (l. Nadal) and the quarter-final in Vienna (l. Cilic). The slow conditions in Bercy will limit his game and it is shown by his record through the years. He is 6-5 at BNP Paribas Masters with a quarter-final appearance in 2004. Arnaud Clement passed qualifications successfully beating Dasnieres De Veig and Stakhovsky (retired). The Frenchman has plenty of experience in Bercy since his first appearance was back in 1997 but is 5-10 in main draw matches failing to post two consecutive victories. This time thanks to Stakhovsky retirement he was able to win two matches although in qualifying. His semi-final in Lyon should boost his confidence but the conditions here are totally different and the surface is slow. The match-up between Lopez and Clement features two indoors specialists with totally different style who don’t feel very comfortable playing in Paris.

Wawrinka v Guez – Stanislas Wawrinka reached the quarter-finals in Basel without playing on the top of his game. But he had reasons for that – he retired in Shanghai with abdominal strain and did not practice for several weeks. But now he seems to be over his injury worries and should play in Paris even better. The Swiss has enough power in his serve and ground strokes. He has a beautiful attacking one-handed backhand which is a strong weapon against anyone. David Guez of France passed qualifications successfully beating two big servers in Kendrick and Navarro. First he withstood 12 aces from the racket of Kendrick and won 52% of his total return points, then another 11 aces from Navarro and 44% total return points. The Frenchman, ranked 185 in the world, reached the second round in Lyon to mark his best ATP Tour performance. His confidence is high and eventually he started to play even better. Guez is fairly good baseline player – a bit cautious and passive and times but it could be in his favour at the slow conditions. He struggled against an accomplished and solid baseline grinder like Simon in Lyon winning only three games and could well struggle against decent player like Wawrinka. But the Swiss is not in his best form and starting a new tournament can be sometimes a bit tricky. We don’t trust Guez but we don’t advice betting on Wawrinka either.

Seppi v Verdasco – Seppi beat Kohlschreiber in the first round due to a very bad performance of the German who served badly and spilled errors all over the court. The Italian is a good baseliner with solid game, but his season looks finished in terms of success and high spirit. He managed to beat Bohli last week and Kohli yesterday, but his game looks shaky and he himself looks tired and unmotivated. Verdasco on the other hand has everything to play for as he aims at getting into the final Masters in London. He even postponed his foot surgery to concentrate on his season end. His recent form is very good as he reached the semis in Valencia last week beating Tipsarevic and Robredo. He has gone deep in four of his last five events. He is an attacking baseliner with powerful leftie forehand and serve. He has the skills to overpower Seppi and he has the serve to trouble the Italian. Seppi has the defence to wait for errors, but Verdasco is in much better form and he has beaten the Italian in five of the six matches between the two. The Spaniard looks like a sure winner on his way to the UK.

Davydenko v Becker – Becker is in bad form this summer and it continues into the fall. He is 6-15 after winning his last title in Rosmalen and his victories have been over clay courters and players out of form. The German played a great first half of the season, but he is in a deep hole now. He is a good hard courter with powerful serve and very solid ground game. He has the skills to stay in rallies, but he also has the power to make winners when he sees an opening. He beat Llodra in the first round here and he looked relatively good. However, he meets a tough opponent now in Davydenko. The Russian is chasing the final Masters and his form has been great recently. He played in Valencia last and reached the semis. He is a great baseliner who takes the ball early and has the skills to push opponents around. He is very dangerous when his game goes well and he beat Nadal and Djokovic in China recently. Davydenko will have a big edge on the ground and he has also improved his serve lately. Becker has good shots for fast surfaces, but in his current state of form he will struggle against a fast and powerful opponent.

Tsonga v Montanes – Tsonga retired in Valencia with wrist injury, but he needed some rest for it and he claims that he is fully fit and concentrated on defending his title in Paris. The Frenchman has the perfect game for indoor courts with his big serve and forehand and his good movement on court. In addition he has good slices and volleys and he plays attacking and powerful tennis. Montanes beat Hanescu in a tough match yesterday and judging by the score it was a fiercely contested affair dominated by serve. However, in reality the match was poor in quality as both players obviously struggled with the conditions. Montanes is a clay courter with good baseline skills and fast technical serve, but he lacks power or fluency on faster surfaces. He relies on technique and defence and his movement on court and shot preparation are better suited for slow courts. Tsonga has too much power and aggression for Montanes and the Spaniard looks doomed in this match. He took a victory indoors and that is more than enough for his record. We really do not see him getting even a set from a healthy and prepared Tsonga.

Ljubicic v Simon - Ljubicic admitted after winning the title in Lyon that he feels in top form and he surely played that way there. He needed some time to rest and lost in the first round of Basel, but he is fresh off the start here. He beat Grosjean in his typical effort-saving style with just a couple of breaks. He served well and was solid on the ground. He likes the conditions on the slower central court as he has the time to set up his powerful flat shots and on the other hand has the needed bounce for his serve. The Croat is a good indoors player and his recent form is very good so he is not to be underestimated here. Simon also plays well recently as he has got no problems with his knee anymore. The Frenchman is 9-2 indoors after the US Open having won the title in Bangkok. He is a solid defensive baseline who likes the surface in Paris. He plays well at the back with good retrieving of the ball, but he also has power to counter attack fast. Both players are in good form and we are up for a great game. Ljubicic will press on serve and will try to overpower the Frenchman with his deep flat strokes and net rushes. Simon on the other hand will look to keep the ball in play and pass or force errors from the Croat. Ljubicic has won all three meetings between the two (two of them this season) and that is a big plus for him as SImon obviously seems to struggle against him and the Frenchman finds it really hard to turn around such records as he has no big weapons or many options in his game. Ljubicic looks like a valuable bet in this match of bookies give him odds above 2.20.

Kohlschreiber v Seppi – Philipp Kohlschreiber is a very talented baseliner with good ground strokes and a beautiful one-handed backhand. He hits the ball with power and generates a lot of pace on the ground and he also has a solid serve to start with. He enjoys playing on all kind of surfaces but generally prefers slower ones as he plays with a lot of top spin and needs more time to execute accurately. Paris acrylic surface with high bounce will suit his style. He reached the semi-finals in Vienna the week before last and improved to 7-4 indoors this season. Andreas Seppi is a baseline defending type who likes long rallies and slow surfaces, particularly clay courts. He has no big weapons of his own and despite being able to produce occasional winners he relies mostly on opponent’s errors and pace. Seppi is 9-15 on hard courts this season and 4-6 indoors. He plays well against shaky opponents and loses to superior ones with more power and good accuracy in their shots. Kohlschreiber has the power and control to hit through his opponent and he proved that during US Open when he prevailed over Seppi 6-0 6-4 6-4. The victory will give him enough confidence to repeat this solid performance against the disinterested and shaky Italian. Odds look correctly set and we find no reason to bet on any of these two.

Mathieu v Troicki – Paul-Henri Mathieu is a good all-court player with strong serve and attacking shots off both wings. He is a confidence player and whenever reaches some form and momentum becomes very tough nut to crack. But his recent two defeats to Gicquel and Berdych might have done a lot of damage to his otherwise weak mentality. Mathieu is 4-6 in Paris with four first round exits combined with 28-27 record this season and 6-6 indoors. Viktor Troicki on the other hand managed to stay fit after US Open and returned to winning days. The Serbian is a powerful server with attacking game and good powerful forehand. He likes to finish points early on fast surfaces, but he also has the skills to stay back and defend until gets a position for counterattack. Troicki is 9-4 indoors this season with a final in Babgkok (l. Simon) and is well matched up on the slow conditions in Paris. Mathieu and Troicki present similar playing style but the Serbian is more consistent lately which turns the odds into his favour. Troicki passed qualification in Paris last year only to lose to Ljubicic in the first round but this time he enters fresh and confident. The final outcome will be decided by the player who makes less errors and Mathieu has been erratic lately.

Cuevas v Karlovic – Pablo Cuevas is making his second competitive ATP Tour season among the best and could be proud of his performance so far. He is a South American clay courter spending more than 80% of his playing time on the slow red courts but has done relatively good job on hard courts this season. He is 3-3 indoors and 5-5 on hard courts (indoors and outdoors). The Uruguayan possesses a technical serve and solid baseline game and should be well suited to the slow conditions in Paris. Ivo Karlovic is well known for his big serve and attacking game with good volleys. He hits the ball flat and powerful on the forehand side and slices on the backhand side running as fast as possible to the net to keep points short. His form has not been good lately and he is 3-8 on tour after Wimbledon. His serve is not very good recently and he looked tired and slow in Asia so the long season might have taken its toll on him. It very much looks as his last match for the season before he goes to a much deserved rest and recharges his batteries. But the odds are fair and there is no value in betting on Cuevas at those odds. The Uruguayan has not met a similar opponent with so much power and height in their serves and will be very troubled returning those shots. But Cuevas will dominate the rallies and if he can stay patient and calm, he can be victorious.

Hanescu v Montanes – Both Hanescu and Montanes enjoy playing deep behind the baseline and especially the Romanian is several metres away from the white line while returning and eventually his return numbers are poor. But he covers with strong serves and powerful ground strokes from the baseline. And he is doing it consistently and successfully but on slow surfaces. He is 15-11 on clay courts this season and just 10-17 on hard courts (4-5 indoors). Albert Montanes is a typical clay courter who has limited success on other surfaces. But he managed to post three indoors victories the last month, although one was against a player outside Top 300, the other was against a retiring player and the third was not played because Ferrer handed him a walkover. The Spaniard is very strong on clay courts and he won two titles this season in Bucharest and Estoril. Hanescu leads the head-to-head 5-1 at ATP Tour level having won the last four and lost only one in 2005 when he was injured. The match-up features two clay court specialists but Hanescu seems to be better suited with his powerful serve. But the odds seem about right and leave us looking somewhere else for betting.

Grosjean v Ljubicic – Sebastien Grosjean received a wild card by the organisers in Paris in an attempt to help him recover physically and mentally from the long spell of injuries. He is still recovering from the shoulder injury from last season and retired in half of the matches he started this year. In Lyon he was very competitive against Kiefer and very close to victory but he felt a bit nervous and lost in the end. Grosjean is a good baseline player who has plenty of indoors experience. Ivan Ljubicic was a bit tired in Basel and lost to Wawrinka but he fought hard several days after claiming the title in Lyon. The Croat is having something of a revival of his career and winning Lyon tournament was the best present for the first birthday of his son. Ljubicic is very strong in serve and solid behind the baseline. He is economic in his movement and quite cautious. He had a foot injury in Shanghai and will hardly do an extra effort. The match-up between Ljubicic and Grosjean will be the late evening showdown, so it is expected a full packed Bercy with the Frenchman fired up by the crowd. Ljubicic is 8-6 in Paris (runner-up in 2005 lost to Berdych). The odds for a Croatian victory are very low; the numbers give a small value for Grosjean but the slow conditions should favour Ljubicic who will have plenty of time to take his most convenient position on the court and unleash his powerful baseline shots. Grosjean needs a bit more match practice to be competitive with Top 25 opposition.

Berdych v Millot - Berdych is in good form now, but he had the bad luck to meet bad opponents for his game recently and therefore lost early in Shanghai and Valencia. He lost to Simon, Youhzny and Soderling, but he beat Safin, Cilic and Mathieu. His game is perfect for indoor courts as he has a powerful serve and forehand and he plays offensive tennis. Millot managed to get into the main draw on tour for the second time in a month. He did that in Lyon and lost easily to Rochus in the first round. He beat Bolelli and Gil to give himself a second shot at a victory among the big guys. He is a Challenger and Futures player with good ground game and powerful serve. He gets some cheap points on first serve, but he lacks the same power on the second one. He is solid on the ground and has the needed ground strokes, but he will be overpowered by the Czech. Berdych is much more experienced and has the better ground strokes. He has better skills and more power, he is bigger on serve and he pretty much has the upper hand in every department. Millot might be able to his ground and stay solid and patient and force errors and a loss by Berdych, but we are not ready to put any money on such an outcome and we think Berdych will win in two.

Beck A v Kubot - Beck played some bad matches recently and there were some unconfirmed rumours of an injury as he withdrew from Lyon. However, he was back in Basel last week and looked relatively good in losing to eventual champion Djokovic in two sets. The German is a powerful leftie with big serve and forehand and good attacking game. He plays a lot on clay and on Challenger level, but he made the transition to the main tour this season and he plays more on faster surfaces nowadays. Kubot is a good doubles player (No 11 in doubles) and he won the title in Vienna alongside Marach a week ago. He has a powerful and technical serve and good volleys (naturally), but he also has some decent baseline skills and hold his ground in rallies even on clay. Kubot uses a lot of slices and approaches and he has been in good form in singles this season, but on Challenger level. He beat Berrer and Serra in qualifying, but in both matches he won less points than his opponent and he looked se  cond best most of the time. He saved 18 break points in the two matches and spent almost five hours on court. His second serve was bad as he won below 40% of the points on it. Beck is a good returner who can take advantage of a weak serve and he has good serves himself so Kubot is in for a tough encounter. Having in mind his recent matches we cannot back Beck, but Kubot also looks untrustworthy as he was shaky (but lucky) in qualifying and he should be tired because of his time spent on court.

Falla v Isner - Falla played four consecutive indoors events before this one and he won the title in Rennes and passed qualification in Vienna and Valencia. He beat some decent fast surface players like Malisse, Hrbaty, Peya and Ascione, but he had the tough luck to meet Cilic and Davydenko in the main draw. His record indoors is 12-3 recently and he beat Recouderc and Gicquel to get in the main draw in Paris. He is a player with powerful first serve and risky and tricky second serve. He tends to make more double faults than aces, but he is very solid and successful on serve in general. He likes fast surfaces and has good baseline skills for them. He has good shots off both wings and goes for his winners in attack. Isner is a one-dimensional American power server with big serve and forehand and limited other options. He is very hard to beat when his serve gets going and it was going pretty well in Basel last week. However, he tends to tire easily in longer matches and that wa  s the main reason for his fading away and losing against Gasquet. Isner will take advantage of the bouncy and fast surface, but Falla will also use the surface in his favour on serve. The South American has more experience here having played two matches already, but he spent a lot of time on court againsy Gicquel and he might not like another tough match. Isner has his chances to prevail if his serve gets going well and we are very reluctant to oppose him so we will skip this match.

Ascione v Safin – Thiery Ascione of France passed qualification to get into the main draw in Paris. The Frenchman is 1-1 here having played only once back in 2003 but he has good experience indoors although at a lower level than ATP Tour. Ascione is an average server and tries to play aggressive tennis. He is 9-4 in 2009 at indoors Challengers matches. He beat Rodriguez and Gabashvili this weekend winning 50% on his return and gave up only three games each. Both his opponents were poor and made plenty of unforced errors but Ascione showed consistency and determination. Marat Safin enters his final career tournament and probably one of his most favourite. Three times winner at BNP Paribas Masters in 2000, 2002 and 2003 and once a runner-up in his first appearance in 1999, Safin holds a huge 24-4 record at Bercy. He is a shadow from those winning days but still can play decent attacking tennis with huge serves and powerful baseline approach. The Russian reached the semi-finals in St Petersburg (l. Stakhovsky) 10 days ago which marked his best ATP Tour performance this season. Before that he had two quarter-final appearances. Marat Safin is in good form playing his favourite tournament and one should be pretty sure he will give his best in front of his many fans and friends in Paris. Ascione will give him a fight but Safin is better in every department. If he can hold his nerves and stay patient, then he can go positive into the next round against U Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro.

The BNP Paribas Masters in Paris is using a high bouncing acrylic on wood hard court since 2007. This surface is much slower than the typical old indoors carpet surfaces and it favours solid and consistent baseliners possessing decent returns and not necessarily killing serves. Those are Nadal (6-2 record, runner-up in 2007), Davydenko (12-5; winner in 2006) etc. The balls will be Head ATP - generally heavy making it difficult for players to generate too much power and speed. Seeded players with poor records by their standards include Federer (7-6 yet to pass the quarter-finals), Djokovic (3-4 yet to reach the quarter-finals), Verdasco (2-5), Gonzalez (0-6). The season is coming to its end and many tennis players carry injuries and fitness worries which makes betting as much as risky as opportunistic. Flow of information about players' physical condition is very important and could turn the market around.

Blake v Santoro – James Blake is 2-3 in post US Open matches. He was unlucky to meet twice Nadal in Asia but fought hard in both and entered the third set only to lose by a small margin. The American is an ultra-aggressive type of player not afraid to unleash his big forehand and one-handed backhand. His positioning and attacking stance makes him very difficult to play against since he takes the ball early with powerful shots. Fabrice Santoro is 2-5 since US Open and will make his final ATP Tour appearance in Paris. The 36-year-old Frenchman, known as the Magician for his unconventional double-handed playing style and shot variety, including the heavy use of slice off both wings, is retiring this season much for the regret of many fans and players. In 2009 he is 8-13 and way too far from his best performance. He is still a great competitor but lost a lot of his speed and energy. James Blake leads the head-to-head 4-1 with all meetings played on hard courts. The American won all four encounters in USA which is without doubt his favourite place to play tennis. But apart from hi success at the North American continent Blake rarely executes his top tennis elsewhere. He is made too big favourite by the bookies than he deserves and while he will be determined to defend his points from last year (semi-finalist lost to Tsonga) we don’t trust him.

Llodra v Becker – Michael Llodra is a big serving player following his tricky left-handed serves quite often to the net to finish off points early. He has flat shots and a very good backhand. Recently the Frenchman reached the final in Lyon with very strong performance especially against Simon at the semi-final. Due to many injuries this season he slipped in the rankings heavily outside top 100 but now enters the week as high as No. 70. The organisers handed him a wild card to enter the main draw in Paris where he passed the first round only once in four previous appearances. Benjamin Becker managed to lose nine of his last ten matches in ATP Tour and his confidence is totally gone. The German started the season well and won three titles on hard courts on Challenger level, but his form suddenly deteriorated after the grass spell and he is 4-13 after that. Otherwise Becker has a powerful serve and solid ground game with good forehand but his return is poor while his game style is too dependant on his serve. Llodra has the edge both in recent form and confidence level, but he is too injury prone and it makes betting on him risky. Bookies are quite right compiling the odds as the Frenchman should be a 1.40 favourite. Given the current circumstances we will skip placing bets on this match.

Simon v Youzhny - These two played just a month ago in Tokyo and the Russian won in a very tough three set match. He has taken all four matches against Simon so far and that is a huge boost for him as he is a confidence player. Youzhny is in great form lately being 14-2 after the US Open. He claimed the title in Moscow indoors and he beat Tsonga (ret.) and Cuevas here so far. His serve is going great and his ground game improved against the Uruguayan in comparison with the first match. Youzhny is a very good baseliner with solid shots off both wings. His weak mentality is his big setback, but his form recently has been very good and he definitely has the confidence and the focus to stay solid in matches nowadays. Simon is also in great form going 12-2 after the last Slam with a title in Bangkok. He has a lingering knee injury which has not bothered him in the last few weeks and that has given him a big push forward. His serve is very good recently and he has improved his percentages a lot. He is a solid baseliner and has great retrieving skills on court. He is also powerful and has good shots in counter attack. Youzhny has the hot temperament and the attacking game to struggle against solid defenders, but he has done well against Simon in the past. Both are in great form and there is not telling who will take this one. Simon beat Kunitsyn and Berdych here, but he showed some weakness in the last match as he had to save 11 break points. Youhzny looks great now and he gets the slight edge for us in this match because of his good game and good history against the Frenchman.

Garcia-Lopez v Davydenko - Garcia-Lopez took sweet revenge against Monfils by beating him in straight sets, but the Frenchman was below par and played very badly. The Spaniard beat Greul in the opening round, but both his matches were marked by average serving and ground game. He is a good hard court player with solid baseline game and good angles on the ground. His form is very good this season, but he struggles against more powerful or consistent players. Davydenko can be a bit of both as he is powerful and aggressive on the ground and he also showed great consustency lately. The Russian takes the ball early and also uses very acute angles when playing. His form is great nowadays and he was dominant against Falla and Monaco. He required a medical timeout against Monaco for some stomach problem (it seemed), but that did not affect his game a lot and he won. The Russian is the more aggressive and skilful player on the ground and he also holds the edge on serve, which has improved lately. He has beaten Garcia-Lopez convincingly in their only meeting so far and he should do it once again as he is in form and he needs the victory.

Robredo v Verdasco - Robredo plays his first event after the Asian tour and he looked solid on serve against Lopez. He is a good baseliner wtih solid defense and good retrieving skills. He tends to be too passive at times, but he has the power and counter-punching skills to be dangerous on the ground. He beat Rochus and Lopez here with the help of high percentage serving and good consistency. Verdasco had a walk over against Hernandez and faced Tipsarevic in the second round. The Serbian looked better in the first set, but Verdasco played well in defense and served great when it mattered to hold his nerves and claim the set. His opponent then required medical attention for pain in the thigh and looked a bit slower on court ever after. Verdasco dominated the second set and won. He is a powerful leftie with tough serve and big forehand. He lacks a good backhand and Tipsarevic used that well until he got injured. Verdasco is offensive and powerful while Robredo is defensive and consistent. Verdasco has more experience indoors this fall while Robredo has played mostly outdoors. Verdasco trails 3-4 in the previous meetings, but leads 3-2 on fast surfaces. He took the last meeting in Paris 2008. The match is very tough to call and it depends on the daily form of the players. Robredo is more passive and needs no great form to win while Verdasco has to get his game going to get past the defense of his opponent. We are tempted to go with Robredo here, but there is no telling which Verdasco will come on court so we needs big odds for the defender to back him.

Murray v Montanes - Montanes beat local youngster Bautista and then had the luck to get a walkover against Ferrer and here he is in the quarterfinals on a surface he does not like. The Spaniard is a clay courter with solid serve and good baseline skills, but he lacks the speed and the penetration of shots that is required for faster surfaces. Murray had a lapse of his game in the second set against Mayer and he was close to getting beaten to zero, but he came back and won the match in the decider. The Brit once again showed good first serve and baseline defense, but he was weak on second serve and made mistakes when trying to attack more. He is a very good returner of serve and has probably the best retrieving skills on tour, but he lacks power and aggressive experience. He tends to struggle against more powerful players in form, but luckily Montanes is not even close to being such a player. The Spaniard has no big weapons on the ground and despite being in great form this season he relies more on consistency and needs time for his shots. Murray is still rusty after the wrist injury, but he has the skills to beat a defensive clay courter like Montanes on a fast surface and he should be able to get an easy victory if he has learned the lessons from last night.

Gasquet v Chiudinelli - Gasquet managed to hold his nerve despite his reputation of mental weakness and he overcame the big serve of Isner to get into the quarterfinals. The Frenchman served well himself and did not get desperate by the tons of aces he had to swallow. Gasquet is a very good baseliner with powerful backhand and attacking ground game. His form is not too good at the moment, but he played well indoors in Metz and Malaysia (5-2 record) and he beat in-form Zeballos in the first round. Chiudinelli defeated two good opponents in Kohlschreiber and Lammer. He faced two solid baseliners with powerful game and he played very good and consistent tennis. The local man is a very good baseliner who hits with spin and plays aggressive tennis. His career has been marked by injuries but he looks determined to come back now. Both are good baseliners with attacking game with the local player being the more controlled one, but Gasquret being the more powerful and talented. The Frenchman can be very dangerous when on a good run and he has the shots to move Chiudinelli around and trouble him. The local player was kept busy by Lammer and he still lacks experience on the top level so Gasquet looks like a deserved favorite here. We are not tempted to back him though as his mental lapses are well-known so we will skip this match.

Federer v Korolev - Federer took two easy victories in Basel so far. He beat Rochus and Seppi who were never going to be a problem and neither should be Korolev. The top seed is playing very well at the moment with good serve and powerful and attacking ground game to go with it. He is a very good indoors player and he has three titles here. Korolev started from qualifying and then defeated Bolelli and Chardy in the main draw. He won two points less than Chardy in their match and looked second best for most of the time, but his big shots and serve worked when it mattered. The Russian is an ultra aggressive player with big ground strokes. He tends to be impatient and too offensive at times and that is the main reason for him losing so many matches and struggling with the rankings. Federer beat Korolev easily in Melbourne this season and he should be able to handle him once again. The Swiss master has the better and more controlled game and he also is much better in attack. Korolev is too inconsistent and flashy to be a real challenge for the world No 1 so he stands no chance in this match.

Stepanek v Cilic - Both players had very tough second round matches, but Stepanek has the advantage of a day more to rest. The Czech missed the record 16 break points and could not break the serve of Serra, but he managed to win a couple of tie-breaks and get the victory. He served 22 aces and was clearly the better player in the match. His serve and volley game was going well, but his opponent stayed solid in the key moments. Stepanek is a powerful server with deep and accurate flat shots, which set up his net rushes. His form is pretty good nowadays and he aims at keeping it so before the Davis Cup final. Cilic needed three hours to get past Troicki. He leads with a break in the decisive sets, but could not hold onto it and the match was decided in three tie-breaks. The Croat served well and was the better player, but his concentration was easily broken in the long match. He is a powerful player with big forehand and serve and good powerful baseline game. He lacks the good movement for fast surfaces, but his power and serve make up for his lack of speed. He reached the final in Vienna and he has now played seven matches in ten days. He is not known as very physical and fit and he does not do well in consecutive weeks of tennis. In addition he played for three hours yesterday and he faces a very powerful and fit opponent. Stepanek will look to attack and press his opponent. He has the flat shots and angles to keep Cilic moving and that will surely trouble the tired Croat. Cilic is more powerful on court, but his busy schedule makes him untrustwirthy. Stepanek is a value bet on odds above 2.20.

Wawrinka v Djokovic - Djokovic played a great game against Hernych and he won without conceding a single game. His opponent was no real test, but the current form of the Serbian is really great and he plays the best tennis this season. He won the title in Beijing and then went deep in Snanghai and he now plays very well indoors too. He is a good baseliner with great variety in his game and powerful serve. Wawrinka seems to be over the abdominal injury he had, but he is not playing great. He wore out Ljubicic and Nieminen in tough three set matches, but the Finn had the first set on his serve and then raced through the second set only to fade away in the decider. Wawrinka is also a good baseliner with great powerful one-handed backhand and solid defense. However, he lacks the variety Djokovic has and he also lacks the good form and the fast attacking skills of his opponent. Djokovic is playing great now and we really cannot see Wawrinka threatening him with anything in their match.

Ljubicic v Llodra - These two have been very impressive this week. Both are powerful servers who hit the ball flat and both rely on the serve to build their game after that. Llodra is more aggressive and rushes to the net often while Ljubicic plays more at the back and has more power on the ground. Llodra defeated Ouahab, Gicquel, Monaco and Simon and he showed some impressive serving - 80% of the points on serve won and 59 aces fired. He faced five break points and got broken just once. Ljubicic beat Vassallo, Kiefer, Serra and Clement and he also threw some serving bombs - 78% won on serve and 56 aces fired with just two break points faced and one break conceded. The two have met once on grass last season and Llodra won the match in three tight sets. The match should feature very big serves and a lot of attacking and we are sure it will be an entertaining affair for spectators. Ljubicic has been a bit better this season while Llodra only sparked some form indoors. Ljubicic is 27-30 against lefties so the local player will have some edge there. The Croat is 195-183 in tie-breaks in his career and 16-9 this season. Llodra has negative record against right-handers and he is just 63-79 in tie-breaks in his career (7-6 this season). Once again stats make it tough to decide the winner. Ljubicic holds a slight edge because of his better form this season, better records and more solid and patient approach. Llodra often risks too much and he might break down easier after a couple of bad net rushes so we give the Croat the spot of the favorite, but betting on the match is out of the question as things are too tight to risk money on it.

Stakhovsky v Zeballos - Zeballos made his debut indoors this week and he is now in his first final on the tour. He is a good Challengers player with powerful ground strokes and effective returns, but he lacks experience on the highest level and indoors. He played very well on Challenger level this season and claimed a number of titles there, but he needs to make a smooth transition the main tour. He showed good baseline skills and consistent serving this week to beat Schukin, Dolgopolov, Gulbis and Kunitsyn. He used his chances well and stayed focused in the key moments to get to the final. He looked weaker at times against Gulbis and Kunistyn and stats from the matches are against him, but still he managed to win them both without dropping a set. Stakhovsky started from qualifying here and he must have some good memories in his head now. The only title he has won on the tour so far came last season in Zagreb and the event was indoors and he started his run from qualifying. The Ukrainian is a very good indoors player with all the needed weapons - powerful and technical serve, good volleys and attacking game. In addition he has some good shots from the baseline and can exchange the ball well enough. Zeballos is on a great run, but he still lacks the experience and has not played against a serve-and-volley player like Stakhovsky. The Ukrainian will look to press his opponent and use the fast surface and the slices to take him out of his comfort zone. He has been very solid this week too and he lost a set only to Safin. He has the edge in experience and on serve while Zeballos will hold some advantage on return and in defense. Stakhovsky is our favorite for this match, but it is a final after all and odds present no value for betting.

Safin v Istomin – Denis Istomin was lucky to meet Mikhail Youzhny who was tired from playing long in Moscow and pulled out in the second set stating back injury. It was more as a precaution but certainly had the fatigue effects. Istomin improved to 16-17 match record on the season; including 9-12 on hard courts and 13-10 at Challenger level. He reached a career-high No. 57 on July 27 but has dropped outside Top 100 after failing to defend his points from two Challenger titles in August last year. Istomin has a fairly powerful serve and good to average baseline game. Marat Safin entered the quarter-finals of St Petersburg in a similar way to Istomin after his opponent Igor Andreev retired in the second set with a left knee injury. Safin won two of his 15 career titles in St. Petersburg in 2000 and 2001, holds a 19-5 lifetime record and feels very comfortable playing there. His performance until now was solid especially on serve. The Russian is a powerful baseliner and when fully concentrated he backs up his strong serving with huge forehand and two-handed backhand. But he struggles against consistent grinders who patiently wait for any errors of him and they inevitably come. Safin is about to meet Istomin for the first time in his career and enters the match-up as a favorite in an attempt to reach his first ATP Tour semi-final for the season. He holds the key for the final outcome – the way he executes his solid baseline approach this week means  Istomin should have little chances, but if his unforced errors count keeps on mounting, then he will gift the victory to the Uzbek.

Phau v Stakhovsky – Bjorn Phau played very solid tennis both on serve and return against Karlo Beck, won the first set 6-4 and seemed a straight sets winner when his opponent retired and gifted Phau the victory. The German likes playing on hard courts where his attacking tennis is perfectly suited. He always goes for winners but builds his points with patience and controlled aggression. He is not the most powerful player but covers with fast pace and good positioning. Phau struggled with injuries but at the age of 30 it is natural. Sergiy Stakhovsky continues his excellent performance in St Petersburg. He knocked out wild card Andrey Kuznetsov 6-1 6-4 on a surface he enjoys competing. Friday match-up with Phau marks his fourth season quarter-final appearance after Doha, Zagreb and Moscow. The Ukrainian has a strong serve and used it well against Kuznetsov – 7 aces, 75% total serve points won, three saved break points with no break of his serve. Stakhovsky holds the edge over Phau in serving and while he is generally worse in return, he has more experience indoors and is in good form at the moment. The Ukrainian has a defensive slice backhand that give him time to take better position and prepare for his next shot. His variety and shot mixing are very useful weapons on any surface and he uses them wisely. He is the favorite to progress into his first semi-final of the season and no argue Stakhovsky has better chances.

Zeballos v Gulbis – Horacio Zeballos was a straight set winner against two qualifiers and entered the quarter-final of an ATP Tour event for the first time in his career. At the age of 14 the Argentinean makes his best performance since becoming professional. He 48-14 at Challenger level in 2009 and has five titles under his belt. Zeballos improved to No. 54 in the rankings with playing only six career ATP Tour matches. But similar to most players of his caliber the transition from Challenger level to ATP Tour is the most difficult and establishing within Top 50 might take him several years, if at all. He is consistent baseliner with attacking shots and fast legs, but lacks enough power and tactical experience. Ernests Gulbis improved to 8-3 in St Petersburg after reaching the quarter-final or better in three of his four appearances here. The Latvian fired 22 aces to knock out Jeremy Chardy of France 7-6 6-3. He plays powerful and attacking tennis and not only served well, but also returned many of the powerful serves of the Frenchman. Gulbis broke opponent’s serve twice in as many as 10 opportunities. Zeballos is at an unknown zone when looking at his ATP Tour record while Gulbis is swimming in home waters. He feels very comfortable here, plays close to his best tennis and definitely is a favorite. He has a history of poor mental approach but not this week at this tournament.

Hanescu v Kunitsyn – Victor Hanescu had an easy passage over Ilya Marchenko and beat him 6-3 6-4 in an hour and 18 minutes. With 7 aces, 76% total serve points won and two breaks of Marchenko’s serve he was very efficient. The Romanian has a powerful serve and baseline approach that made him reach a career high No. 26 in the rankings this season. A final in Stuttgart (clay) and four other quarter-finals make his successful season so far. Igor Kunitsyn took advantage of Elgin poor performance and prevailed 6-4 6-3. The Russian has struggled to find his best form this season and is only 15-29. He hasn’t reached the quarter-finals since Memphis in February and desperately tries to save his season with strong showing in St Petersburg. He already dropped significantly in the rankings and is out of Top 100. For a second consecutive match he was very solid in return and won 50% of his total return points. Kunitsyn is the kind of player who likes to attack but lacks the power to consistently post winners. Instead it looks like he constantly returns balls into play and waits for opponent’s errors. Hanescu presents different approach than Kunitsyn’s last two victims as he has the power to hit through the Russian. What makes Hanescu vulnerable is his poor movement and positioning and it becomes quite visible on fast surfaces as he is used to playing on clay courts. But the Romanian covers with his ability to generate a lot of power especially in his forehand. He has the edge over struggling for form Kunitsyn and has slightly better chances to progress.

Ljubicic v Kiefer – Ivan Ljubicic had no troubles getting past Vassallo-Arguello in straight sets. The Croat was very strong in serve as usual while missed 10 break point chances but still converted two in each set and closed out the match. He fired 7 aces, won over 70% of his total points on serve and looked solid at the baseline. Ljubicic had foot injury in Shanghai which did not occur again, so hopefully he has recovered. At his age he is both economic in his movement and cautious. He will never run after balls he has good chance to return in play. Nicolas Kiefer and Sebastien Grosjean made the match of the day on the central court in Lyon. Fired up by the crowd the Frenchman gave everything to knock out Kiefer. But the German was very calm, patient and controlled his nerves and aggression very good. He was not troubled to play solid during two match points for Grosjean in the second set. All in all, his mental strength made the difference between them. Kiefer served fairly good – 20aces, 7 double faults, 56% first serve, 66% total serve points won, although it wasn’t his best performance. Ljubicic leads Kiefer 3-0 in previous meetings on three different surfaces, but two of them were back in 2002. Both enter an age (over 30) when people call them veterans. They still have plenty to give, although their bodies restrict them at times but they cover with experience and positioning. Ljubicic has the edge over Kiefer with his better form and is a favorite to reach the quarter-finals.

Mathieu v Gicquel –Paul-Henri Mathieu started the match against Mayer a bit shaky and was lucky to win the first set tie-break, but it proved to be the turning point of the match. The Argentinean was done and Mathieu cruised to 6-2 in the second set. The Frenchman withstood 17 aces from the racket of Mayer and he himself fired seven and won 75% total points on his serve. Marc Gicquel showed very convincing performance to oust his compatriot and qualifier Jerome Haehnel, who despite giving his best could not endure the level of tennis Gicquel offered.  Marc loves the fast conditions in Lyon and is always highly pumped up to perform as well as possible. His movement on court is very good while keeping his unforced errors count at low level. They already met twice this season at indoors, in Metz and Rotterdam and share the head-to-head in 2009. We expect very close encounter between two struggling for form players who are determined to show their best in front of the French crowd in Lyon, but we give Gicquel better chances than the odds suggest and advise medium bets on him.

Llodra v Monaco – Michael Llodra made a good preparation for Lyon in an attempt to save his season and it gave results – he thrashed Ouahab 6-1 6-2. His serve was working so well that he gave away only five points on serve.  His game is perfect for the conditions – he hits the ball flat and with a lot of power and he has a very strong one handed backhand. In addition he is a leftie and he has a powerful serve and great volleys. Juan Monaco won against Ouanna in straight sets to confirm his hip injury is over and he is back to normal fitness level. He is a clay courter with powerful serve and solid ground game and despite the limited experience on fast surfaces is able to play successfully on hard courts. His serve is easy predictable and he gets punished a lot (broken twice against Ouanna), but his retrieving skills and excellent return is a solid cover. He won 57% total return points and broke his opponent’s serve six times out of 10 attempts. Llodra and Monaco have completely different game styles and it is difficult to make a proper prediction. Our preference goes slightly with Llodra who enjoys playing indoors but his form has been terrible this season and should not be trusted too much. All in all, we skip betting this match and will look for other options.

Tsonga v Rochus O – Jo-Wilfried Tsonga found unexpectedly too much trouble against Kevin Kim of USA. He prevailed 7-6 7-6 but did not convinced and justified his big favorite status to win the tournament at Lyon. He had 14 aces and won 77% of his total points on serve but struggled to match Kim grinding baseline approach and had only two chances for break and he missed them all. Olivier Rochus is just the type of player who will run around the baseline, return many balls in play and put the pressure on Tsonga to make the first error in the rally. But his serve is weaker weapon and without a solid first shot his task of winning against powerful players like Tsonga is very difficult. Rochus had easy first round passage against French qualifier Vincent Millot 6-3 6-2. The Belgium dictated the rhythm of baseline exchanges and the match was at his control all the time. He reached the final in Stockholm last week (l. Baghdatis) and could be a bit tired. Tsonga should definitely be a big favorite but not as low as 1.15. A bet on Rochus is for the bravest, we refuse to run after big underdogs anticipating a shocking surprise.

Clement v Becker – Arnaud Clement received a wild card to enter the main draw in Lyon and justified the trust in him by solid performance over the clay court specialist Oscar Hernandez who was totally unaware how to play on the fast surface. Hernandez won only two service games for the whole match. Clement won 59% of his total return points and clearly was not threatened at all. Benjamin Becker of Germany also had an easy passage over Italian qualifier Paolo Lorenzi 6-2 6-2. The German needed badly this victory to lift his broken confidence. He was on an eight-match losing streak prior to his first round match in Lyon. But he knows that Lorenzi does not represent the same threat as the rest of the pack of the tournament. Clement leads Becker 3-1 with the only German victory coming at Lyon in 2007 by two tie-breaks. But all in all, the Frenchman has a solid return and neutralizes to some extent the strong serve of Becker and dominates him at the baseline. Clement is in much better form and has a clear edge over Becker. But 10-18 W-L record in 2009 and slipping steady in the rankings to No. 119 means he lost his consistency and cannot be trusted.

Guez v Simon – David Guez made his best appearance in ATP Tour level since he started from qualifications and beat Rajeev Ram 6-2 6-4. The Frenchman should be extremely happy as he did that in front of home crowd. He had a clear plan how to beat Ram and stayed solid from the baseline without making many mistakes and then attacked at key moments. Guez won 73% of his total points on serve and broke Ram’s serve three times out of five attempts. Now he will have the chance to test his skills against a top opposition in the like of second seed Gilles Simon. The latter battled through the out-of-form Italian Simone Bolelli 7-6 7-6 but had to fight hard for the victory. Despite having 14 aces he struggled to play his usual solid baseline game and placed just 50% first serves. "I have always been struggling here in Lyon until last year when I reached the semi-finals," he said afterwards. "I am now feeling better and better and I think I could do pretty well until the end of the season." Simon will certainly be much stronger in his second match now that he adjusted to the courts and atmosphere. He should be relaxed and confident, while all the nerves will go to his opponent, Guez, who finds a second round at ATP Tour as unknown zone. Don’t expect a close match as Simon has one of the best returns on Tour and will use it to shake the confidence of the player at the other side of the net.

Kuznetsov v Stakhovsky – Andrey Kuznetsov should have plenty to celebrate after he posted his first main draw ATP Tour victory. The 18-year-old talent from Russia had a tough time against Marcel Granollers and spent about three hours but managed to keep his nerves and come out victorious at the end of the day. He had eight aces and 66% total serve points won. Sergiy Stakhovsky prevailed over Korolev 6-4 6-3 for exactly one hour. He was so strong in his serve execution that left his opponent watching desperately. Stakhovsky fired six aces, won 85% of his total serve points giving away just seven points on his serve - pretty amazing serving performance. The Ukrainian is very good indoors player, moves well behind the baseline and builds his points clever. Stakhovsky improved to 12-14 on the year, highlighted by three ATP Tour quarter-finals. For the last couple of weeks Stakhovsky played several Russian youngsters and found a way to beat all of them. His style is very difficult, because he has useful variety in his shots – powerful forehand, slice backhand and when he changes the length and height of his ground strokes, youngsters ruin themselves with numerous unforced errors. Stakhovsky is a big favorite and should progress comfortably.

Kunitsyn v Elgin – Igor Kunitsyn from Russia overcame his poor form and bounced back in style with 6-4 6-3 victory over Pablo Cuevas. The Russian won more points on Cuevas serve than the Uruguayan himself, but it was definitely not Cuevas day out there. Kunitsyn proved that form means nothing and experience and determination are much more important for the final outcome of the match. He placed 72% first serves and was fairly solid from the baseline. Mikhail Elgin fired 11 aces to knock last week semi-finalist Kukushkin out of the tournament at St Petersburg. He was a bit shaky in his second serve (42%) but covered with 30% (3/10) break points won and 46% total return points won. Kukushkin was obviously out of concentration after reaching the semi-finals last week, an achievement quite rare in his short career. To be honest Kunitsyn has very good chances to reach the quarter-finals here. He is a lot better than Elgin, who was a surprise quarter-finalist here last year after he beat journeyman Volandri and walked over injured Davydenko. Ranked 353 in the world Elgin needs opponents to fail to maintain their top level. But Kunitsyn found his form and is very determined to go deeper into the draw. He is the deserved favorite and we fancy hi progressing easily.

Youzhny v Istomin – Mikhail Youzhny did not suffer the fatigue effects of his late stay in Moscow a few days ago and cruised comfortably to 6-3 6-2 victory against Golubev. He played his usual solid baseline attacking tennis and won 77% of his total points on serve without letting a single break point opportunity for his opponent. Youzhny likes playing on fast surfaces as his style is built around powerful serve and attacking ground game. He does his best when the surface helps him make more winning shots and his opponent does not have the time to defend. Denis Istomin edged past Schuettler 6-4 6-4 with fairly good performance. He played 75% of his first serves and it helped him a lot to further build up his points. Ranked outise top 100 the Uzbek spends the majority of his playing time on Challenger level. Still, this season he gained valuable experience at ATP Tour level after playing more than 30 matches (15-17 W-L record) with a quarter-final in Eastbourne (grass). His best achievement so far is beating No. 26 player. The difference in quality between Youzhny and Istomin is very big and therefore the odds are strongly in favor of the Russian, who is expected to win comfortably and we share this opinion.

Safin v Andreev – Marat Safin was determined and focused to come out victorious against Richard Gasquet and played solid for an hour and 40 minutes 7-6 6-4. He fired 14 aces and was more aggressive than his opponent, went for his shots and it paid off in the end. The Russian is close to saying goodbye to competitive tennis and it stirs his mental composure. He lacks consistency and rarely puts two solid displays in a row. Igor Andreev notched up very important victory for his confidence over the Italian Potito Starace who was disinterested to fight hard and win the match. The Russian struggled to find his form in recent months and now is the perfect time and place to go deeper into draw. The hunger for victories is there and the self-belief is slowly coming back. Andreev is a powerful right-hander with a lot of top spin in his baseline ground strokes. His style is best suited for clay courts where he posted his top results but still he has significant indoors experience. In 2007 he beat Safin in Moscow second round and now should believe he can do that again. For sure, Safin 2009 plays worse than Safin 2007, so we give Andreev a lot better chances than the bookies suggest. Place medium stakes on Andreev to prevail over his retiring compatriot.

Rochus v Millot – Rochus comes off a very good week with a final reached in Sweden and his only setback here could be fatigue. The small Belgian played very well last week using his good defensive skills to make opponents run and also playing pretty well in counter attack with some powerful shots on the ground. He is a good all court player and he should like the slower (in comparison with previous seasons) indoor courts here. Millot is a French Futures and Challengers player who passed qualification to get into the main draw. He beat Inzerillo, Obradovic and Janowicz with solid baseline game and good retrieving skills. He reached two finals on Challenger level this season – in Milan on clay and in Manta on hard courts, but apart from that he has nothing else to write home about. He makes his debut on the main tour now and naturally he lacks experience on the level. Rochus has the solid and consistent game to be a bad match for the local player. Millot will look to prevail in rallies and he should be patient and solid on the baseline. He might be able to pull that out, but in general he lacks the experience and skills his opponent has and he has no huge weapons to rely on. Rochus is a deserved favorite for the match and as we said above only fatigue can stop him, but he is a fit and experienced player so that should not be a major problem against a debutant.

Mathieu v Mayer L – After winning here in 2002 Paul-Henri Mathieu failed to notch up two consecutive victories in all five appearances here. He has four first round exits from seven starts which come to prove his inconsistency throughout the years. Mathieu is in bad form and his recent results are poor. He lost to Monfils in Shanghai and is just 5-6 on fast surfaces after the clay season. Hi good result this year came on the dirt. For an otherwise powerful baseliner with good serve and backhand he lacks mental strength and plays very inconsistently. Leonardo Mayer played more on Challenger level last season and preferred clay, but he turned onto the main tour this year and he played his best tennis on hard courts. However, he has no experience on the European indoor circuit as the only experience he has indoors is in the USA where courts are different. Both Mathieu and Mayer are in bad form at the moment, but the Frenchman is at home in a tournament he had previously won. Mayer should have his chances against underperforming Mathieu but his is a bit one-dimensional player at the moment, unable to offer variety in his shots. We prefer to skip betting here and watch them before placing any bets.

Benneteau v Anderson – Julien Benneteau made a strong start and progressed comfortably into the second round by defeating Spaniard Alberto Martin 7-6 6-1. Benneteau is making his eighth appearance in Lyon and achieved his best result last year, when he finished runner-up to Robin Soderling in the final. He knows the courts very well and will have the home crowd support behind him. Kevin Anderson needed two hours and 13 minutes together with 24 aces to prevail over Simon Greul in three tough sets. The South African kept on his solid performance in qualifying when his serve was also the most dangerous weapon. He is very dependent on the serve since he cannot count too much on his poor return. But as long as his first serve percentage is consistent and high, then opponents’ task is very difficult. Benneteau has plenty of experience playing against big servers and knows how to deal with them. His all-round game is very suitable for the conditions in Lyon and his baseline dominance will be visible. The Frenchman is deservedly a big favorite in the match-up and should not have any problems advancing further.

Serra v Montanes – Florent Serra managed to post his first victory at Lyon after beating Christophe Rochus of Belgium 6-3 6-3. Serra served well (70% first serve, 74% total serve points won), but his opponent was very poor and made Serra look like top 10 player. He is the grinding type with fast movement and fairly good baseline game, but for the last several seasons always performed at one and the same level – the level of a 67-ranked player. He is 22-27 in 2009 with five quarter-final appearances and runner-up in Casablanca. Albert Montanes was quite impressive on his debut in Lyon. He beat local fan favorite and veteran Fabrice Santoro 6-4 6-4 without letting his serve get broken. The Spaniard is a clay court specialist with decent baseline game. His one-handed backhand was especially useful and he made several beautiful attacking winning shots with it. He does not have a good record at indoors tournaments but indeed he did not play that much because always preferred the clay. He is 4-13 in career indoors matches. The Spaniard defeated Serra this season on hard but lost to him on the slow clay courts of Casablanca. Serra should be confident ahead of the match with Montanes and has the edge in experience playing at these conditions, but he can’t be trusted as pretty much anything is possible.

Simon v Bolelli – Simon played just one event indoors lately and won the title in Bangkok. He had some matches on hard courts after that, but took a week off before coming to his local indoors event in Lyon. He is a solid baseliner with great defense and retrieving skills. He likes to play on hard courts that are not very fast and the surface switch from carpet to acrylic will suit him well. He has very strong shots from both sides and his backhand down the line is very dangerous, but his best weapon is the ability to stay in rallies and force errors from the opponent. Bolelli is on a five match losing run and his form is very bad at the moment. He withdrew from Stockholm last week stating injury on his site and personal reasons on the official site, but we assume the second is true as he was reported to be training in Rome last week. His fitness should be taken into consideration, but his overall condition makes him untrustworthy in general. He is a good clay courter with powerful baseline shots, but his inconsistency makes him an average player. His recent results and overall condition make him a big outsider in this match. Simon likes the surface and he has the game to make Bolelli run and hit extra shots so he looks like a certain winner despite having lost both meetings with the Italian so far.

Kiefer v Grosjean - These two are veterans on tour and they know each other pretty well. Both play very well on fast surfaces as they have good serves and nice volleys and tend to rush to the net a lot. Grosjean relies more on baseline rallies and technical serve while Kiefer has more power on serve and is quick to attack and get to the net. Both have good indoor records, but both have had injury-hit seasons so far. Grosjean still recovers from shoulder surgery from last year. He has played just five events this season and has retired in three of them. He played in Orleans last week and despite losing to Ascione in the first round he still reached the final in doubles alongside Patience and he stated that his shoulder is fine now. Kiefer retired in Moscow with lower back pain, but he claims to be fully fit now. The German had to overcome ankle strains, flu, abdominal tear and hip injuries this season and he has not finished his last two tournaments so there is no way we can trust him on these odds. Grosjean also looks for the long awaited winning return and he is also unbackable at the moment so the only sensible conclusion is to stay away from this match between injury-hit veterans.

Youzhny v Golubev – Mikhail Youzhny won the tournament in Moscow and improved to 13-10 there lifetime and to a 37-26 match record on the season, which includes runner-up finishes in Munich (l. Berdych) and in Tokyo (l. Tsonga). The Russian played very solid and deserved to be crowned winner in a place he always struggled to replicate his best form because of the high pressure from family and friends watching in the stands. Now he goes to St Petersburg where he is even better (19-7 lifetime) in conditions very similar to those in Moscow. His first round opponent will be Andrey Golubev. The Kazakh has won only one match from his last nine appearances on the court and is in terrible form. He is 7-17 this season and slipped in the rankings to No. 139 in the world. Last year at the same time he was in excellent form, passed qualifications in St Petersburg and beat players like Safin, Zverev and Hanescu to reach the final and lose to Andy Murray. Now he is nowhere near to that form and lacks the self-belief to make a run deeper into the draw. Still, there is a chance that Youzhny is tired after his lovely performance in Moscow and if celebrations were long, then he might feel the effects of fatigue and rustiness. But we are not ready to oppose him having in mind the player on the other side of the net.

Safin v Gasquet – This is definitely the match of the first round but deserves to be the final. Marat Safin, twice winner at St Petersburg in 2000 and 2001, is on his last season and holds a healthy 17-5 record. His preparation for any tournament is poor with motivation very low now that the end is very close. On Sunday, he was in the crowd to watch the Moscow final instead practicing for the upcoming tournament. His game is build around big serve and powerful baseline shots. He has great talent, but his mind tends to wander off and he loses concentration easily. Richard Gasquet is the most unexpected entry in the main draw. He never took part at St Petersburg before and always preferred his home country event at Lyon instead, where he was a winner in 2006 (overall 7-3 record). But it has its explanation – he wants to get away from the media and fans pressure and simply concentrate on his tennis after the ban. The Frenchman is a solid baseline player with strong serve and beautiful attacking one-handed backhand. He is 6-5 since the ban and 5-3 indoors. Safin leads Gasquet 3-2 but lost in Dubai (hard) this season in three sets. Now that Safin is even more unfocused means that Gasquet’s chances are better to go deeper into the draw. But odds seem fair and we don’t plan wasting money here.

Cuevas v Kunitsyn – Pablo Cuevas is a clay courter who played mostly on Challenger level before this season. However, he started appearing more on the main tour this year and he made several very solid performances. The Uruguayan reached the semi-finals in Hamburg (clay) and a quarterfinal in Bucharest (clay). He is a powerful serving player with good attacking forehand. He has not played indoors in the last five seasons and he lacks experience on the grounds, but his game should be very well suited to hard courts as well. He has the power and controls his aggression effectively which is a necessary condition to perform successfully on hard courts. Last week in Moscow he beat Lu and Gabashvili before losing to Kukushkin – quarter-final appearance for a first main draw indoors tournament is not bad at all. Igor Kunitsyn’s form is poor with his only post-US Open victory coming against fellow struggler and compatriot Andreev. Kunitsyn was a winner in Moscow last year but failed to pass the first round last week (l. Korolev). He is 13-29 in 2009 and 2-5 at indoors events which led to dropping out of top 100. The match-up with Cuevas basically needs answering the question who has better chances under the circumstances – in-form South American with little indoors experience playing in cold Russia or out-of-form Russian with plenty of indoors experience. There is no answer but the chances should be slightly in favor of Cuevas, which is exactly what bookies think. We stay away from betting on this match.

Marchenko v Hanescu – Ilya Marchenko showed plenty of determination to keep on his momentum after reaching the semi-finals in Moscow last week. He beat 6-4 6-1 Fabio Fognini of Italy who was very disinterested and eager to fly back to Italy and the good weather. Similar to his performance last week Marchenko stayed solid at the baseline and with patient precise approach waited for his opponent to make a wrong step. The Ukrainian broke Fognini’s serve three times out of seven attempts and won 76% of his total serve points. Victor Hanescu spent less than an hour on court on Sunday to book his place into the second round of St Petersburg. The way he played must have boosted his confidence – 80% total serve points won, four breaks of serve (50%) and only nine points lost on his serve. The Romanian is a big and powerful player with flat shots and enjoys the conditions here. Last year he performed very successfully here reaching the semi-finals and a repeat is very possible. Hanescu has the skills to hit through Marchenko despite being a bit slow on the indoors court but he covers with power and accuracy which will be too much for the young Ukranian who will hardly see any easy points.

Zeballos v Dolgopolov Jr – Horacio Zeballos won in straight sets against Yuri Schukin. He fired 12 aces in an evenly matched first set and closed it in the tie-break (46-46 points in the 1st set). The Argentinean has a useful return and put the pressure on his opponent’s second serve. Zeballos is good all-court player and while his serve is not his strongest weapon, it was working very well against Schukin and makes his points building process easier. Oleksandr Dolgopolov Jr from Ukraine progressed into the second round of St Petersburg after his opponent Robby Ginepri pulled out injured in the second set. Dolgopolov did not need to make anything special except to keep the ball in play. Ginepri was restricted in his movement due to pain in his thigh and it was a matter of time to pack his bag. About 90 places is the difference between Zeballos and Dolgopolov in the ATP rankings in favor of the Argentinean and that’s why bookies made him the favorite to win the match. He has reached a decent level of consistency during this season and deserves to go deeper into the draw. Zeballos has better return and will exploit any weaker second serves of the Ukrainian who is pretty much in an unknown zone at an ATP Tour second round.

Gulbis v Chardy – Ernests Gulbis was lucky to come out victorious in his match against Florian Mayer of Germany. The Latvian managed to break his opponent’s serve once out of four attempts while he saved all seven break points he faced on his own serve and finished the match in one hour on Sunday. Gulbis placed 70% of his first serve in play and won 82% of them. But he was poor on his return against a player not famous with his strong serving skills. The Latvian is powerful player with attacking aggressive ground strokes and should be well suited to the conditions in St Petersburg, a place he should love to take part in. Jeremy Chardy made a practice against Romanian youngster Luncanu and cruised to victory 6-2 6-2. The Frenchman gave away just seven points on his serve for the whole match and was definitely miles better than qualifier Luncanu. Chardy backs up a huge serve with decent and powerful baseline game. He is not the best mover on the court but covers with accuracy and power in his shots. Gulbis played well in Asian tournaments last month but then in Europe failed to replicate his good form. In Asia he lost twice to Tsonga in close matches and while he was competitive against the big man from France, Gulbis did not use the many chances he had, which speaks about his lack of experience and mental composure. Chardy already spent some time in St Petersburg, practiced extensively and is well prepared. He is the deserved winner and should progress in a close encounter.

Beck K v Phau – Karol Beck threw the biggest surprise on Monday when he beat seed No. 3 Viktor Troicki of Serbia 6-7 4-6 6-4. The Slovak was very solid from the baseline and did not allow many chances for his opponent. Troicki lost the first set tie-break, then made everything he could to stay longer in the match, but it was evident his game wasn’t working and Beck deservedly was victorious at the end of the day. Despite his poor form in a season full of injuries and fitness problems Bjorn Phau was simply too good for wild card local hope Stanislav Vovk and won comfortably 6-3 6-2. He placed just 50% of his first serves in play but still won 80% of his total points on serve. His baseline domination was all over the court as Vovk struggled to stay in rallies and made too many mistakes. Both Beck and Phau underachieved in 2009 and desperately try to save their season. Beck actually failed to post two consecutive victories in main draw tournaments at ATP Tour level while Phau still managed to reach a semi-final in Houston (clay) and a quarter-final in Chennai (hard), but both lacked consistency. Beck has more experience indoors while Phau enjoys the medium fast conditions. It is quite even match and we are unable to distinguish a winner. Bookies give the edge to the more experienced player on this surface but he is in bad form at the moment and we find a small value with the underdog.

Haehnel v Gicquel – Jerome Haehnel passed qualifications in Lyon successfully and enters the main draw for the first time since 2007. He beat Langer, de Chaunac and Brezac without dropping a single set winning above 70% of his total serve points in each match he played. There are several interesting facts about the Frenchman. First, his limited matches and poor ranking has its logical explanation for an otherwise talented player – he has a fear of flying and thus participates only at tournaments close to France. He has plenty of experience playing indoors but due to his poor ranking wastes his energy attempting to enter Challenger tournaments. He is a past winner at Metz (indoors) in 2004 which speaks for his abilities but now five years later is far away from replicating that form. 2004 was his most successful season – he beat Agassi in French Open first round. Marc Gicquel reached the Lyon final in 2006 and 2007 and took tournament favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to three sets here last year. He pulled out of Moscow claiming a sore throat, but a week later he should be ok. The Frenchman loves playing on quick indoor courts and Lyon is without doubt his favourite event of the ATP Tour. At the age of 32 he lost a bit of his speed but positioning and experience do more than enough cover. Gicquel is three years older than Haehnel and knows him very well (0-1 in ATP Tour events; 1-1 at Challenger level). Haehnel has reached some momentum after successful qualifying, but Gicquel starts his favourite tournament and should be well suited by the conditions. The match could be closer than the odds suggest, but Haehnel can hardly compete at the highest level.

Anderson v Greul – Kevin Anderson was very impressive in qualifying. He had above 75% first serve percentage in his two matches against Mello and Gensse without letting a single break of his serve. The South African is tall and powerful player with big swing hitting the ball hard. Last season he was a nice surprise in ATP Tour but in 2009 failed to keep his consistency and eventually dropped in the rankings to No. 125 as of late. Andreson seems to play equally successful in all kinds of surfaces but is too dependent on hi serve and struggles against grinding types with solid returns who constantly give him the extra ball. Simon Greul is an all court type of player making his best season since turning professional. Greul climbed to No. 59 in ATP rankings with solid 15-13 record in 2009. Recently he reached the semi-finals at Bucharest on clay (l. Monaco) and won the Challenger at Todi also on clay. His match-up with Anderson will be his 76th for the season and fatigue could be a factor in his performing at Lyon. If Anderson can replicate his serving performance in qualifying, then he will have many cheap points. We trust his form and advise a small bet on him progressing into the next round at odds above 2.25.

Guez v Ram – David Guez, ranked 2004 in ATP rankings, passed qualifications and enters the main draw of ATP Tour event for the first time this season. He beat Rochette and Recourdec in straight sets and preserved his energy much for the contrast with last year here when he ran out of gas in the first round match with Seppi. Guez is the grinding type of player who is running fast behind the baseline, returns many balls back in court but does not take additional risk in his shots especially from difficult positions and waits for easy shots. Rajeev Ram, 25, won his first career ATP Tour title on the grass at Newport., Ram's strategy is particularly clear in any surface: try to impose his game, serve strong and come to the net as much as possible. He is doubles specialist and enters Lyon doubles with his partner Butorac. Ram is in poor form since he has a lower back injury sustained in Tashkent. But it was nothing serious as long as he reached the semi-finals in Moscow doubles with his partner. Rajeev Ram is in poor form at the moment when analysing his singles performance. Guez plays confident tennis right now, knows the courts well, has the home crowd support and should have better chances than the odds suggest. We intended to place a bet on Guez but odds are too poor on him and the value disappreaed.

Tsonga v Kim – Tsonga has the perfect game for indoor surfaces. He has played here two times before and he likes the fast courts. Despite the surface change and the slower conditions this season he still has good options. Indoor surface gives him chance to use his big serve and forehand and rush to the net often. The Frenchman has really good volleys and plays great attacking tennis. He was busy lately in Asia and won the title in Tokyo. He fell to Soderling next week in Shangai and took some time to rest before the indoors spell. Kim is an US hard court player who has decent baseline game and nothing fancy to offer. He is a veteran on tour and has limited experience indoors. Most of his matches indoors are in the US, but he has some experience in Europe. Tsonga has too much power, skills and experience for Kim. The American is not in form and he is in decline looking at the approaching end of his career. We really see no chance for the visitor as he has no weapons to oppose to the top seed.

Clement v Hernandez – Hernandez has very limited experience indoors. He plays most of his tennis on clay and he needs time and bounce to perform his shots better. He played in Stockholm last week and lost to Kendrick in the opening round. His victories indoors have been over fellow clay courters and we give him no big chances for victory as he relies on defense and long rallies which are not good indoors. Clement played really well last week and reached the quarterfinal starting from qualification. His form this season was bad so far and he needed a wild card to get into the main draw here. He is a really good indoors player with great attacking skills. He uses flat shots and a lot of net rushes to press his opponents and he has a lot of experience on the surface. He has the game and the attacking shots to trouble Hernandez and he picked up the needed confidence last week so we rate him as a sure winner against a slow clay courter who is far from his best ground.

Becker v Lorenzi – Lorezni is an Italian clay courter who did well on Challenger level this season and won three titles which gave him a rare chance to get into the main draw on the tour. He has absolutely no experience indoors on this level and he has no real game for the surface. As most clay courters he relies on consistency and solid baseline game to progress, but that will not be enough here. Becker is a good German hard courter who rocked the Challenger tour at the start of the season, but he is not in form now. He lost his last eight matches on tour – all on hard and indoors. He led Greul by a break in the final set last week, but could not finish the match. He is a powerful server with good ground strokes. He plays solid tennis at the back, but also has the ability to take his chances in attack when he sees an opening. His game should suit him to the surface in Lyon and he meets a perfect opponent to make the long awaited victory. He is a big favorite against the Italian and we cannot see him lose this one. However, his bad spell and the low odds will put us off backing him on this occasion.

Ljubicic v Vassallo – Ljubicic gave Nadal a hard time in Shanghai, but picked up a foot injury and had to retire. He claimed that it is not serious, but he still stated that he will come to practice in Lyon and will decide on the day of the match whether he is fit enough to play. The Croat is a big serving player with powerful flat ground strokes. He likes the surface a bit slower and the changes in the surface in Lyon to a slower one will suit him perfectly andl his serve (which has been going very well lately) will work pretty well under these conditions. He is 10-6 here and has won the event back in 2001. Vassallo is a typical clay court player known for his solid serve and good baseline skills. He plays mostly on clay and his only three matches indoors were this season in Malaysia and Moscow. He even managed to defeat Lopez, but the Spaniard practically beat himself in that match. Vassallo has no game for the surface and Ljubicic will find it easy to hit past and through him and serve the match out. However, it remains to be seen how fit will the Croat be – he looked alright when playing doubles yesterday and he should probably last an easy first round match.

Montanes v Santoro – Montanes is another of the clay court Armada that comes to Lyon to play indoors. The courts this season are slower than the flashing carpet from last season, but still this is indoors hard and the acrylic surface gives the ball enough speed to trouble clay courters. Montanes is a player with good technical serve and solid baseline game. He lacks huge experience indoors and he likes the balls slower to be able to handle them. Santoro on the other hand plays well on all surfaces. He is a veteran in his (probably) last season on tour and he would love to do well at home. He is a tricky player to face as he hits double-handed off both wings. He plays with a lot of drop shots and slices and the two-handed grip gives the chance to disguise his shots well. He has a lot of weapons in his arsenal and the surface will give him a chance to use it. He rushes to the net often and likes faster surfaces which respond to the slice better. His form has not been very good recently, but he faces a clay courter in Lyon and should be able to progress. Montanes has lost both matches against Santoro and we rate the Magician as the much better player indoors. Santoro has the chance to record an easy victory as he has the variety of game to trouble the inexperienced Spaniard.

Llodra v Ouahab – Llodra has had a bad season so far with a lot of injuries and viruses bothering him. He even admitted to having swine flu when he lost to Robredo in Shanghai and joke or not that describes his season so far. However, he accepted a wild card for Lyon and he got to the semis in Orleans last week so he should be fit and ready to play. His game is perfect for the conditions – he hits the ball flat and with a lot of power and he has a very strong one handed backhand. In addition he is a leftie and he has a powerful serve and great volleys. That makes him a dangerous player indoors and even if he is not fully fit he should be able to handle his opponent. Ouahab is a Challenger level clay courter. His ranking allowed him to get into the main draw here and this will be his first match indoors. He has good shots and solid serve, but he is not a fast mover and naturally he prefers slow surfaces. Llodra has too much power and speed for his opponent and on these courts his shots should prove too much for his inexperienced opponent.

Cilic v Falla – Cilic was late signing for the tournament, but he finally got a wild card to be the top seed and the star of a depleted field. The Croat has no motivation to play as he will gain no points even if he takes the title, but this will be a good preparation for Basel and Paris. He is a tall and powerful player with big serve and big flat forehand. He plays double-handed on the backhand side and he can be consistent from the baseline as well as offensive and dangerous. He won the last event he played indoors in Zagreb and he has good experience on the surface. He lost his last match in Shanghai, but he had a long run to the final in Beijing before that so he looked tired there. Falla passed qualification here beating a good indoors player in Peya and the clay courter Ungur. He recently won the title in Rennes indoors and is now on a seven match winning run. The Colombian is a powerful server with aggressive ground game and he prefers fast surfaces despite being South American. He defeated some nice opponents in France and he must be ready for the surface. He showed solid and reliable serving this weekend and he managed 89% of his first serves in against Ungur. Cilic might not be well prepared as he got the wild card somewhat surprisingly, but he still has the power and skills to win this match. Falla has a decent game, but he lacks the skills to trouble Cilic and the question is whether Cilic will play with full effort. The answer will be given after his first match so we will skip this one and wait for the outcome.

Haider-Maurer v Lopez – Lopez has a great record here. He is 14-4 with a title in 2004 and his game is perfect for the courts. He is a leftie with powerful serve and good volleys and he has a powerful forehand and sliced backhand which do well on fast and low bouncing surfaces. His form has been bad this season, but he picked himself up in Shanghai and reached the semis. He got injured there, but he was able to play in Moscow and beat Gulbis before running out of gas in the third set against Rochus. He should be rested and ready for Vienna now. Haider-Maurer is a local Challenger and Futures player who has had a pretty bad season so far. He suffered from a knee and a leg injury in the last two months and he has not won a set in the two matches played after coming back from the last break. He is a good solid clay courter with powerful serve, but he has no big experience indoors. He has played here five times so far and has five losses (only one time he managed to record a couple of victories – in 2007 qualifying he beat Navarro and Kubot before losing to Ljubicic in the main draw). Lopez is the better player by far and the surface suits him well. He gathered the needed confidence in China and he gets our preferences to take the win in this match.

Kohlschreiber v Kindlmann – Kohlschreiber retired from his doubles match in Shanghai with shoulder injury, but he managed to get over it until the end of the week and he has been training hard for the last week. He came early in Vienna and he is now familiar with the courts and the surface. The German is a very good baseliner with powerful shots off both wings and he has a very solid and speedy one-handed backhand. His form indoors is very good in general and he reached the semis in his debut in Vienna last season. He is a fast mover and has powerful serve and ground strokes which makes him dangerous on any surface. Kindlmann passed qualification beating Reister and Sweeting. He won 76% of the points on serve and 49% on the return, but his opponents did not look competitive. The German is a powerful Challenger player who plays mostly on clay, but he has some experience on hard and indoors. He played in Rennes and Orleans and beat some powerful serving players there. He has a good serve and solid ground game, but he cannot oppose an in-form Kohlschreiber. The higher ranked German has the skills and the power to beat Kindlmann easily and he looks pretty good recently. He has been inconsistent in the past, but he likes playing indoors so we do not see any possible surprise here.

Darcis v Petzschner – Petzschner won a surprising title last season. He started from qualifying and beat seven opponents to get to the trophy in his debut in Vienna. He defeated Wawrinka, Moya, Lopez and Monfils with great serving and volleying performance. He has all the weapons to be good indoors, but his recent form is very bad. He lost his last four matches on fast surfaces and he has won just one match against Llodra after the US Open. He might have a shoulder injury as such a sudden slump in form is not normal. Darcis on the other hand is a small and fast baseliner with good defense and counter attacking style. He has quite a lot of experience indoors and his fast legs and good defensive skills make him good in chasing a lot of balls from the back. In addition he uses the opponent’s power well to make his own shots. He played more on Challenger level this season where he did well, but his form on the main tour is also pretty shaky. He played in Mons indoors and reached the semis and he lost in the opening round of Kolding to Kohlmann. Petzschner should have the upper edge as he knows and likes the surface and he will obviously use the same serve and volleys tactics as last season. Darcis has the skills to stay in rallies, but he will not like the fast surface and the slices and net rushes of his opponent so he is a deserved outsider. However, the recent slump in the German’s form is a concern and we will not advise any bets on him here.

Seppi v Hajek – Hajek is a clay courter who plays all his matches on Challenger level. His season has been very good so far and the three titles won on the lower level propelled him to No 115 and that gave him a spot in Vienna. He has never played indoors on the main tour and he has no victories in the main draw of an indoors event even on Challenger level. His game is built around consistency and solid baseline skills, which makes him good on slower and pretty weak on faster surfaces. He is not used to facing top 100 players and will be troubled against them on unfamiliar surfaces. Seppi has been in bad shape recently fighting off illness and exhaustion. He started well indoors in Stockholm where he stopped the rot of four consecutive losses and beat clay courter Crivoi. The Italian is a solid baseliner with great consistency and defense. He has good and powerful baseline shots and despite not making many winners, he uses the opponent’s weaknesses and pace well to make his own points. He has more experience indoors than his opponent and he has shown in the past that he is able to handle clay courters on fast surfaces. Hajek is too limited in his skills and we cannot trust him outside his favorite clay.

Melzer v Chiudinelli – Melzer had a week of training in Vienna and he is full of confidence before the event. He likes playing in Vienna where he is 11-9 with three quarterfinals. The surface is very fast and the Austrian leftie has the skills to be good on it as he is able to play serve and volley quite well. His recent form is also good as he reached the semis indoors in Bangkok and the third round in Shanghai. Chiudinelli is back in the top 100 after a long injury break. He is a good baseliner who takes the ball early and plays with spin in his shots. He plays qualifying for most events and he was successful in his last four such events. He plays well indoors and he likes fast surfaces, but he will e troubled by the fast surface in Vienna. Melzer is more familiar and experienced in his home land and he has a lot of variety and consistency in his game. Chiudinelli plays fast baseline tennis, but he can be troubled by a net rushing opponent and the fast conditions might trouble his shot making so we rate Melzer as the better player in this match.

Kubot v Stepanek – Kubot is a very good doubles player with solid serve and nice volleys. He has good baseline skills and can be competitive in rallies, but his style includes a lot of net rushing. He has been playing well on the singles tour recently reaching the second round in Beijing (beat Roddick) and he passed qualification in both Beijing and Shanghai. However, he lacks experience indoors and his last singles match on the surface was three years ago. Stepanek is also a great serve and volley player, but he has much more experience indoors. He has played three times before in Vienna and is 7-3 with a semifinal in 2005. The Czech is very good on fast surfaces as he has very accurate flat shots which help him approach the net. He is powerful on serve and has great physical strength and his form has been pretty good recently. The fast conditions in Vienna will suit Stepanek better and he will use them in his favor to press Kubot. The Pole is not good under pressure as he showed with his performances recently (had a huge lead against Wawrinka and blew it in Beijing). Stepanek is the deserved favorite for this match and he should be able to win it with his good deep ground strokes and swift volleys.

Luncanu v Chardy – Petru-Alexandru Luncanu of Romania is a 20-year-old promising star. He plays more on Futures and Challenger level and won a couple of Futures titles on clay this season. He could hardly pass qualifications for a Challenger tournament, thus making the main draw in St Petersburg seemed quite unexpected. He has a decent baseline game with solid serve and ground skills, but he has no great experience on the surface and lacks consistency big time. He beat three Russians in qualifying who were just poorer in serving than him. Jeremy Chardy is in bad form at the moment. He lost his momentum after Davis Cup and failed to post a victory in Asian tournaments. Chardy somewhat strangely decided to take part in Orleans Challenger last week and reached the quarter-finals but it did not change his below-par performance. The only thing that is positive for him right now is his first round opponent who will have big troubles returning the powerful serve of the Frenchman. And while Luncanu himself has weak serve, then it is not strange to see Chardy a huge favorite to progress. But his form is a concern and we don’t advise betting on him as end of tennis season witnesses many strange results.

Stakhovsky v Korolev – Sergiy Stakhovsky passed qualifications in very confident style. He beat journeyman Balamashev without dropping a game, then Polasek retired and finally Bubka was no match for the solid Ukrainian. Stakhovsky is a very good indoors player. He has a powerful serve and good volleys, but he is also pretty consistent and solid on the baseline when he needs to stay there. His slice backhand gives him enough time to get himself into better position. His form is very good recently as he reached the final in Mons indoors and the quarter-final in Moscow last week (l. Youzhny). Evgeny Korolev is in good form at the moment going 6-3 at indoors main draw tournaments with a quarter-final appearance in his last three events. His last match against Marchenko might have had a bad impact on his confidence. He posted more than 50 unforced errors and lost to a player who is a lot weaker than him. He could not swing the ball well and his timing was very poor. He is poor performer in St Petersburg as he lost all three first round matches. Stakhovsky has good chance to gain advantage from Korolev struggles but the odds are too low on him and there is no value in betting.

Zeballos v Schukin – Horacio Zeballos played his first indoors match last week against the eventual champion Mikhail Youzhny. He is a good all-court player with solid baseline game and he plays well on hard as well as on clay. He is 50-13 on both surfaces this season at Challenger level and he won five titles (3 on clay and 2 on hard). He lacks match practice indoors but the surface in St Petersburg gives him better chances as it is slower than than at Moscow. Zeballos is a leftie which could be another advantage to him. Yuri Schukin passed qualifications successfully beating Pavlovs, Donskoy and Okun spending more than six hours on the court. His last two matches were very competitive and exhausting and showed that his serve is still shaky and unreliable. Schukin covered with good movement and solid return skills. Zeballos lacks indoors match practice but holds the edge in the match-up due to his excellent form this season and mental freshness while the Kazakh could be mentally drained after the tough qualification draw.

Dolgopolov Jr v Ginepri – Oleksandr Dolgopolov passed qualifications and attempts to win his first career main draw match. The Ukrainian is 27-9 in 2009 mainly in Challengers and unsuccessful qualifying. He already won three Challengers on clay and 10 days ago reached the semi-final in Tashkent (hard) (l. Baghdatis). Dolgopolov was solid in qualifying winning over 70% of his total serve points during his last two matches and got useful match practice before entering the encounter with Robby Ginepri. The American reached the quarter-finals in Moscow and moves to the west in confident mood. Ginepri has huge experience on hard courts and he plays attacking tennis. He relies on serve and powerful forehand and these shots have been good last week. He lost a bit of his sharpness from previous years but his huge experience plays in his advantage since he plays the important points very focused. Dolgopolov will certainly give all he can in order to post his first career main draw victory and his solid qualifying performance is something he can be proud and confident of. But Ginepri presents a higher tennis level than the qualifying campaign. The odds seem correctly set with bookies favoring Ginepri (1.4-1.5) which is basically the same as our expectation.

Granollers v Kuznetsov Andrey – Marcel Granollers is a tall player with big serve and forehand and he plays attacking tennis from the baseline, but is not a fast mover on court and likes the surface a bit slower. He has been playing Challengers on clay recently after the US Open but rarely put two solid performances in a row. Consistency has been his major setback this season. He struggles against grinding type of players that return back many balls and are not afraid of powerful baseline exchanges. Andrey Kuznetsov will make his second attempt at home soil to gain some valuable experience at the big stage. Last week he learnt some lessons from the retiring Magician, 36-year-old Fabrice Santoro. Still Kuznetsov started the match aggressively, played some good attacking tennis and won the first set but typically for his age he lacks consistency. He has won a couple of Futures titles recently, but has no success on the Challenger level. Granollers will not provide anything untypical and surprising for Kuznetsov, who can certainly match his power from the baseline but is still young and very inconsistent. The match is set to be close which generates some value on the Russian but his inexperience is something which we cannot count on.

Starace v Andreev – Potito Starace is a clay courter with limited success on faster surfaces. He has a good serve and powerful ground strokes, but he prefers to have more time to prepare for his shots and he does badly when he does not have it. But the Italian will not beat himself with plenty of errors; he has the skills to stay in rallies and has modest chances when opposed to average players. That is exactly what happened last week at Moscow when he beat Donskoy and lost to the eventual champion Youzhny. Igor Andreev’s recent form is terrible as he lost his last six matches and has played really bad and unmotivated tennis after the US Open. His game is better suited for clay as he hits with a lot of spin and plays from the baseline. His approach requires more time to set up his shots and on fast surfaces his efficiency is lower. However, he has a powerful serve which makes him competitive on fast grounds. But the way he plays at the moment means his confidence is at the lowest possible level. His record at St Petersburg is poor (1-2). The only light in the tunnel is his positive record against Potito Starace (3-1), all his victories coming on clay court tournaments and the defeat on hard. Andreev dominated his opponent from the baseline and took advantage of his poor second serve. Both players are in bad form, both are struggling to maintain their best tennis on this surface. Any betting on this match involves a risk, but the odds on Starace are simply too generous to be refused since unconfident Andreev might easily destroy himself with plenty of errors. Small bet on odds above 3.0

Elgin v Kukushkin – Mikhail Elgin, ranked 210 in the world, will make his debut in main draw tournaments this week. He is 11-25 in all matches in 2009, 4-13 at hard courts and 2-4 indoors. He had some knee injury the last month and is on a seven match losing streak. He received wild card for St Petersburg but without looking into his opponent in detail, his chances are very slim. Mikhail Kukushkin enters St Petersburg main draw for the first time in his career. Twice he managed to pass qualification in 2007 and 2008; last year even beat Cilic before losing to Hanesci in the second round. His serge in Moscow last week from qualifications speaks the Russian gained experience and is more consistent in his approach to every match. He likes the conditions and should feel comfortable ahead of his match-up with Elgin. It is a wishful thinking to expect anything else than a Kukushkin victory over struggling Elgin. Still, being a favorite in a main draw event is quite strange for Kukushkin, so he might find the pressure too big to handle. Have it in mind when placing bets on him.

Fognini v Marchenko – Fabio Fognini is fairly aggressive baseliner who plays well on the ground and has a powerful forehand, but he needs time for his shots as he is more used to play on clay courts. The Italian has played just five matches indoors in his career and lost them all winning just two sets. As a South European he enjoys playing outdoors under the sunshine, but the conditions in Moscow are completely different. He struggles with his tonsils and his plans include getting rid of them after the season. Ilya Marchenko on the other hand made exactly what is supposed of a player like him during end of season. He used the opportunity to gather valuable points and improve his ranking. Hi semi-final appearance in Moscow is also a great confidence booster for the Ukrainian. Apart from that, he offers nothing spectacular except trying to stay longer in rallies without making errors. In this way he overcame shaky Korolev who made more than 50 unforced errors. The match-up involves two counter-punching types and the outcome depends on Fognini determination to stay longer in Russia (which is unlikely). Do not expect Marchenko to take the initiative and take additional risks. There are too many uncertainties and we don’t want to enter in such a high risk encounter.

Rochus C v Serra – Christophe Rochus retired with an undisclosed illness during the second round against Jankko Tipsarevic after trailing 4-6 1-2. The Belgian is defensive type of player with good counter punching skills. He is not in good form at the moment and struggles to produce his best tennis. His fitness remains questionable and without it he can be easy victim to anyone. Still, he claims to be fit and decided to participate in Lyon on a surface he otherwise is capable at playing. The Frenchman Florent Serra is a fairly solid baseline type with good defensive skills and simple counter punching style. He plays well on all surfaces, but he prefers slower grounds and his best results have come on clay. Serra is yet to win a main draw match after US Open but reached the final in Szczecin on clay (l. Korolev). Both players are struggling with form and underperforming but Serramight be the natural choice as he plays at home and will make fewer mistakes. But overall the match does not deserve our betting attention as it involves players we cannot trust.

Ouanna v Monaco – Josselin Ouanna has a fairly big serve and powerful flat ground strokes. His gamestyle is based around offensive tennis and if his serve goes well he is a tough opponent for anyone. But ranked outside the top 100 he finds tennis life difficult competing every week for several points more against equally strong players. And that combined with a couple of injuries means natural for the Frenchman to have only five main draw victories for two seasons at the top flight. He is still in search for his first indoors victory in ATP Tour. He is 7-4 this season in Challengers played indoors.  Juan Monaco recovered from a hip injury that bothered him in Asia where he lost early in Shanghai to have some rest and travel to Europe. He is a clay courter with powerful serve and solid ground game. He lacks enough practice on fast surfaces this season, but certainly possesses the weapons and skills to play successfully on hard courts as he is powerful on the ground and can make big shots and winners off both wings. He counts his good return but his serve has been shaky lately and he gets punished by strong serving types. Ouanna presents some solid serve but it will be negated by the solid return of Monaco. The Argentinean overcame his fitness worries and comes even stronger at Lyon.

Benneteau v Martin – Julien Benneteau is a good all court player with solid defence and good fighting spirit. He has a technical serve and often follows it to the net on faster surfaces and together with his reasonable solid baseline game makes him tough one to beat. He is 4-2 indoors this season with two quarter-final appearances and definitely enjoys the conditions in Lyon as he is a runner-up in 2008 (l. Soderling). Alberto Martin of Spain last week made his first appearance at indoors tournaments since 2005. He is a typical clay court type of player with good retrieving skills but limited weapons. He can stay in rallies as long as possible but will not attack or take any additional risks in his gameplan. The Spaniard spends 78% of his playing time on clay courts and playing under the roof and lights seems very inconvenient for him. Benneteau is deservedly rated by the bookies as a huge favorite to progress and we very much agree with them. There is no point in thinking the opposite.

Troicki v Beck K – Viktor Troicki has a very useful first serve but a weaker second and get exposed to players with strong retrieving skills. But he should be satisfied with his end-of-season performance because injuries ruined the middle part of his 2009 season. Troicki plays fairly solid baseline game but he was well beaten in Asia by Simon (twice) and Djokovic. Still, they are top 10 players and the Serbian needs a lot more practice and experience to be able to compete with them. Karol Beck is a fairly powerful serving player who likes faster grounds. He has played most of his tennis on hard courts, but after knee and wrist injuries from last four years he has gone down to playing more on Challenger level and now rarely has success in main draw tournaments. He has a lot of experience indoors and his ground strokes are fast and powerful in line with the surface but his confidence is low. Troicki is the better player is every department and should be comfortable winner against Beck at the end of the day. He comes with improved confidence and fitness and should fancy the medium fast conditions.

Vovk v Phau – Stanislav Vovk is 18-year-old Russian who will make his debut in ATP Tour since he received a wild card for St Petersburg main draw. Similar to most youngsters at this age he has big talent and potential but almost no consistency and mental strength. Most of the time opponents do not need to play spectacular tennis to get past him but just keep the ball into play and wait for mistakes. Vovk won his first match in qualifications last week at Moscow against Lipsky but was well beaten by Kukushkin in the next round. Bjorn Phau has good solid ground game along with the technical and consistent serve. He enjoys playing on hard courts where his weapons produce biggest damage. His running ability makes him a tough nut to crack as he covers the court very well. His game style is too dependent on his fitness though, and he already suffered several injuries this season. On theory his match-up with Vovk should be easy as Phau holds the strongest cards but one should never trust his physical condition as he is injury-prone. Without his top fitness the German can basically lose to anyone on Tour. Our advice is to stay away from betting this match.

Istomin v Schuettler – Denis Istomin is a Challenger player with fairly powerful serve and good to average baseline game. He plays more on clay, but he has won five titles on hard on Challenger level. Last week he pulled out in the third set of his match against Marchenko at Moscow but it seemed nothing serious – more of a precaution. Coming off a final at Tashkent the week before Istomin felt a bit tired. Now he should be rested and eager to compete at yet another main draw tournament. Players at his caliber and ranking (Istomin is 103rd) should use those low profile events to improve their rankings. But he fails to make the big stage having only three career victories at indoor tournaments. Rainer Schuettler had five consecutive defeats before entering the qualifications for Shanghai Masters where he reached the third round losing to Djokovic. The German, once a runner-up at Aussie Open, is miles away from that form but still gives everything he can and fights for every ball. He is a defensive counter-punching type of player with fairly good serve. His experience on the big stage is what makes the difference between him and Istomin and ultimately might prove decisive for the final outcome. We are happy to spend some money on the German progressing into the next round at odds above 1.90.

St Petersburg is played on Gerflor Taraflex surface, which is rated as medium fast. It bounnes well, but also gives the ball some speed and favours big servers. Murray won the title here last season by defeating the surprise finalist Golubev. He won the title in the year before that too with Ancic, Youzhny and Johansson also having won the cup. Youhzny has a great record here 19-7 and Hanescu is 4-2 while Korolev and Troicki have yet to win a match.

Gulbis v Mayer - Gulbis spent some time in Stockholm police department last week and even less time on court as he was demolished by Lopez in the first round. He will play here this week and he has rested and regrouped to try and do better. We all know that he has had a bad year and he passed the second round on tour just once since July 2008 and it was courtesy of a retirement from Monaco in Asia last month. The Latvian is a powerful baseliner with big forehand and serve. He has the shots to be dangerous in attack, but his biggest setback is the lack of serious attitude and concentation on court. Mayer is a good hard courter who suffered from injuries recently and that brought him down to playing on Challenger level. He is on a good season and that brought him back to No 67 in the rankings, but he lacks experience indoors. He played in Bangkok this season, but apart from that (he beat Young and Ito) his last victory indoors dates back in 2007. The German is a tall guy with big serve and powerful flattish ground strokes. He is not a very good mover on court and therefore likes slower surfaces more as they give him time to set up his shots. Gulbis has the game to trouble his opponent as he is more powerful and faster on the ground. The question here is does he have the mind to stay in the match and win. We do not want to take on answering that question and although we think Gulbis has the skills to take out Mayer we prefer to stay away from the shaky Latvian partyboy.

Gabashvili v Hanescu - Hanescu lost to Odesnik last week and we looked totally unprepared and unwilling to play indoors. The Romanian is a big and powerful player with flat shots, but he is slow on court and prefers clay where he gets to more balls and executes his shots better. He has some experience indoors and his best result on the surface came last season here as he beat Elgin, Kukushkin and Korolev before bowing out to Golubev in the semifinal. He obviously likes the grounds and conditions here and his loss in Moscow mught have been a way to get to St Petersburg and prepare better. Gabashvili is at home in Russia, but he has not gone past the first round here in his two attempts. He is an offensive player with big serve and forehand and he often goes for too much which has given him the reputation of a hothead and ultra-aggressive player. His form is not great and he lost to Cuevas in Moscow last week. He depends on the day he has and we are not keen to back him in this match. Hanescu on the other hand looks unused to the surface and also should be untrustworthy as only his good run last season supports any bets on him indoors. Stats and facts point in both directions so we have no confidence in backing any of the two which will make us skip this match for betting.

Tipsarevic v Youzhny – Tennis fans in Moscow did not have the luck to watch big tennis during both semi-final matches since the two favorites (Tipsarevic and Youzhny) cruised easily to victories over average opponents like Marchenko and Kukushkin, who experienced playing at such high level in ATP Tour for the very first time in their respective careers. Jankko Tipsarevic of Serbia kept on his impressive performance this week with solid baseline approach that was too powerful and accurate for Marchenko. The Serbian won 6-1 6-4 collecting 80% of his total points on serve, 5 aces and three breaks from nine attempts. He gained much needed confidence and consistency this week and is yet to lose a set. Mikhail Youzhny was even more clinical defeating Kukushkin 6-1 6-2. The Russian broke his opponent’ serve six times out of nine attempts to win 58% of his total return points. He likes playing on home soil and his game, which is based on serve and powerful attacking ground strokes, is built for fast grounds. He has the ability to stay in rallies and produce winning shots off both wings. Undoubtedly the best players reached the final this week in Moscow as both Tipsarevic and Youzhny did not lose a single set and showed some beautiful tennis skills. The Serbian leads the head-to-head 2-0 with both matches played on hard courts in 2008, Miami and Rotterdam. Tipsarevic holds a slight advantage in serve while Youzhny has the better return, but overall their stats are pretty similar. Anything above 2.20 on Tipsarevic represents a small value but we are not keen on betting finals as usually the bookies are correct and the value is small.

Rochus O v Baghdatis – Olivier Rochus withstood 17 aces from Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci to win 7-6 4-6 6-3. The Belgian dominated almost all baseline exchanges and despite his height produced some solid serving performance (73% total serve points won+). He gave away only six points on his serve during the first set, but then was broken in the first game of the second set. Bellucci closed the second set with strong serving but the baseline domination of Rochus continued in the third set – he rallied to a 4-0 lead, then was broken twice and Bellucci was about to level the score, but his unforced errors count continued to mount enormously and eventually the Belgian deserved a hard fought victory. Marcos Baghdatis was not able to play a competitive match since his opponent, Robin Soderling, withdrew because of an elbow injury. Baghdatis, still only 24 and on the comeback trail after missing eight months of tennis due to injury, will appear in his first tour final since February 2007 and the seventh of his career. He plays more on Challenger level now and last week he won the title in Tashkent. Here at Stockholm the Cypriot defeated Ferrero, Kendrick and Clement without dropping a set and seems to play in impressive fashion. He executes solid attacking tennis and goes for winning shots. His serve is powerful enough to give him some cheap points and his baseline approach is suitable for the hard court conditions. Sunday's final between Baghdatis and Rochus will be the pair's second meeting. In their previous encounter, Baghdatis beat the Belgian on clay in Rome in 2007. Rochus is the grinding type of player with his fast legs constantly running around returning balls without making mistakes. He does not go for winning shots, instead attempts to force his opponents into numerous errors. The match-up will come down to Baghdatis ability to control both his nerves and his attacking baseline approach. He is deservedly favoured to win the title after strong performance all week long in Sweden.

Soderling v Baghdatis – These two met for the last time in January at the Aussie Open and Soderling looked like a comfortable winner when he led by a set and double break. However, the Cypriot fans on the stands managed to annoy him and broke his game which brought Baghdatis right back into the match and amazingly enough he won in four sets. That loss threw Soderling into a hole and he was mediocre on court until his big break at the French Open. However, all bad things seem to be forgotten as the giant Swede looks into stunning form since beating Nadal in Paris. He took a title in Bastad and lost only to Federer in the Slams. He has not lost a set here and despite a break of serve here and there he wins comfortably. His game is perfect for the surface as he has a big serve and big forehand which make him a lot of winners. Baghdatis also looks impressive recently. He went down after the Aussie Open due to injuries and he is now trying to come back on the big stage. He plays more on Challenger level now and last week he won the title in Tashkent. He defeated Ferrero, Kendrick and Clement also without dropping a set and in impressive fashion. He has a great talent with his good strong shots off both wings. He plays solid, but attacking tennis and goes for winners. His serve is powerful enough to give him some cheap points and his recent form is very good. His big setback is the mental weakness and lack of concentration and the local fans will surely want to pay him back for that vocal comeback in Melbourne. Soderling is the more powerful player and he is in better form. He needs to points to stay in contention with the top 8 for London and he has been very impressive this summer. Baghdatis lacks the power to match him on serve, but he is more technical on the ground and has the big edge on the backhand side. Soderling leads Baghdatis 3-2 in previous meetings and we cannot oppose him in this one as he is determined to win and avenge his last loss and he is at home where he knows the surface very well (16-6 record). Baghdatis can also be shaky and he has played a lot of matches recently so he might get tired at some point. However, he was also very impressive this week and we really cannot afford to risk any money on this match. Soderling is the deserved favourite, but the match will be a good one to watch and that is all that we will do with it.

Bellucci v Rochus – Bellucci played a great match against Johansson. He fired 18 aces in 11 serving games and did not get broken. His opponent looked slow and relied only on serve which made things easy for the Brazilian and helped him making 46 winners and just 9 errors. Bellucci is a big serving leftie with good powerful forehand. He plays mostly on clay courts, but he did well indoors this week. His opponents were too one-dimensional or inconsistent and gave him many chances which he took. Rochus should be a bit different as he is a fast mover and good defensive baseliner. He plays well here and he beat Nieminen, Lopez and Vinciguerra this week. He made 31 winners against the Finn and he showed some very good power and attacking skills which improved his image of a passive defenseman. The Belgian is very solid on the baseline as he made only 11 errors in the three sets played. Bellucci also looked good, but he was helped by Johansson who gave him too many dead balls good to be attacked and did not move well at all. Experience is with Rochus in this match, but serve and power are on the side of his opponent. The Belgian is 12-2 against lefties indoors so he obviously has no trouble with the leftie serve. It is very hard to determine the winner and the match pretty much lies in the hands of Bellucci. If he manages to play attacking tennis and make a lot of winners he should be able to hit through the Belgian, but he will face his toughest opponent this week and things might get ugly for him on the fast courts so we prefer not to bet on this match.

Marchenko v Tipsarevic – Marchenko is on the best run of his career this week. He came from qualifying to beat three more or less local opponents and get to the semis. He defeated Istomin (retired), Golubev and Korolev in three sets and played a very solid ground game. He is a player with good skills on the ground and nothing spectacular in his game. He has a decent serve and good shots off both wings. He has power to make winners when needed, but he needed to stay solid and put the ball in play to secure his victory in all his matches so far. He was outplayed for most of the match with Istomin and Korolev, but his opponents forced the shots too much and started making mistakes which led to self-destruction. The Ukrainian has won just 57% of the points on serve this week and 44% on the return, but his consistency gave fruit. Tipsarevic was more than impressive this week so far. He defeated all his opponents in straight sets and looked untroubled. His serve is going very well and he has fired 33 aces and has won over 70% of the points behind serve. His main weapons though are on the ground where he is powerful and attacking off both wings. He has the pace and the skills to make winners off both wings and he has the good form to do it easily. His major setback is the lack of confidence and consistency, but he is on a good run of eight consecutive victories indoors and therefore his weak areas must not bother him. Tipsarevic has the power and good offense to trouble Marchenko as all his opponents did so far and he has the controlled and consistent game not to fall into the same self-destruction trap. The Serbian is the better player in every department and his form is good so he deserves to be the favourite for victory in this match.

Youzhny v Kukushkin – Youzhny had no problems getting to this stage as he defeated all his opponents without dropping a set and in pretty confident fashion. The Russian looks in good form as he has won at least two matches in his last events on tour and the surface suits him well. He likes playing on home soil and his game, which is based on serve and powerful attacking ground strokes, is built for fast grounds. He has the ability to stay in rallies and produce winners off both wings and his major setback is the lack of strong mind. However, he has gained confidence with the good results recently and his game looks quite fluent and untroubled so far. Kukushkin on the other hand passed qualification and then had immense trouble beating Fognini and Cuevas. He trailed by a break in the final set of both matches, but amazingly enough he managed to get in back and race to victory without even having to play a tie-break both times. His only straight sets victory in the main draw came against Odesnik and even then he had to save a number of break points and was not too impressive. Kukushkin is a solid baseliner with decent serve and nice strong ground strokes. He is used to playing indoors and on fast surfaces, but he plays more on Challenger level. Youhzny is definitely the better of the two as he has more talent, power and aggression and he is in better form this week and overall on the tour. In addition, the Russian has much more experience on tour and on this stage of an event. Youhzny is the undoubted favourite for the victory in this match and we have almost no concerns about his progress. However, you should keep in mind the strong run of the Kazakh and his strong mentality as the local favourite has had his lapses against tough fighting players.

Soderling v Garcia-Lopez – Sodering had trouble with Seppi only when he stepped off the gas in the beginning of the second set, but after that he took control of the match and never looked back. The Swede has the big serve and powerful flat ground strokes to be very good on fast surfaces. He is in great form this season and he has the perfect game for the surface. Garcia-Lopez is a Spanish all-court player who has a solid powerful serve and good baseline shots. He is not too offensive in his game, but he has the good angles and pace on his strokes to be competitive on faster surfaces. His form is very good this season as he won a title in Kitzbuhel and he beat Martin and Greul convincingly. However, he has no answer to the power and serve of his opponent on this surface. Soderling is at home and he is in form and motivated so we have no reason and desire to doubt his success in this match against a weaker and less experienced opponent.

Baghdatis v Clement – Baghdatis is playing great and confident tennis recently and when he is in such form it takes a top player to stop him. The Cypriot has a lot of talent and power in his game. he relies on his good serve and ground strokes to make winners. He has very god speedy shots off both wings and he can produce winners from both sides. His setbacks have been injuries and mental weakness (including lack of serious attitude), but he looks determined this week and his winning run is now up to seven matches. Clement also looks good as he started from qualifying and beat some local opposition before overcoming a couple of German lefties in the main draw. The Frenchman looked very solid on serve and he kept his cool to take out Berrer who had the better of him in the opening set. Clement is a veteran on tour with technical and solid serve and great volleys. He has a lot of experience indoors and being a good doubles player he has the skills to play well on fast surfaces. Baghdatis has been in better form recently as Clement was in very bad hole before this event. The Cypriot has more power and variety on the ground and he has been untouchable on serve in his two matches so far (beat Ferrero and Kendrick). Clement will look to mix things up and stay solid in defence hoping to force errors from his opponent. That is not a bad way to play a mentally shaky player like Baghdatis, but he is in solid form these days so we think he can hold his nerve and take out the veteran.

Bellucci v Johansson – Bellucci is making a good run on a surface he had no success on before this event. The Brazilian has a powerful leftie serve which bails him out in tough moments and he used it well against Nielsen and Mayer. He plays with a lot of top spin and relies on his big forehand on the ground. Johansson is a powerful server with huge serve and forehand and his serve is one of the toughest to get back if it starts going well. It is going well in Stockholm so far as he has fired 32 aces and won 83% of the points behind serve. Needless to say he is not broken so far by his two opponents Luczak and Monaco. Like them Bellucci is a clay courter and he will have a very tough time handling the serve and the flat forehand of his opponent. Johansson on the other hand will be troubled by the tricky leftie serve, but he has the power to press Bellucci and the Brazlian got broken five times so far so he is not invincible on serve. The Swede is much more experienced on the surface and his game is going very well so he should be able to overpower and beat the clay courter.

Rochus v Nieminen – Both players had their amount of luck in the draw. Rochus faced an unprepared and shaky Vinciguerra and an injured Lopez and beat the first one easily. Lopez took him more time, but he managed to wear him out with a late break in the second set. Nieminen thrashed a youngster in the first round and then got a walkover as Haas withdrew with flu. Both have good memories from the event as Rochus has a semifinal from 2005 and couple of quarterfinals while Nieminen has two finals in 2001 and 2004 and a semifinal in 2008. Rochus has gone down to playing more Challengers recently and his form is slowly deteriorating, but he still plays competitive tennis on all surfaces. Nieminen on the other hand broke his wrist and was out of the tour for four months. These are his first events after the comeback and this result is his best since August. Rochus is more of a defensive baseliner with good counter punching and counter attacking skills. He has a solid serve and no big weapons. Nieminen is a leftie with powerful ground strokes. he also loves rallies without being too passive. He relies on physical power and good consistency on court. We are in for some long rallies in this match and the winner should be hard ti predict. Rochus is not in his best shape and he will have trouble against the more powerful opponent, but Nieminen still lacks matches and could be a bit rusty on court. Rochus leads the previous meetings 6-3 and he obviously has a way to handle the Finn so we give him a slight edge in this match, but still we see nothing worth betting on.

Korolev v Marchenko – Korolev took out champion Kunitsyn and retiring past champion Safin in impressive style. The Russian is a powerful aggressive player with booming ground strokes and good serve. He often goes for too much and destroys himself, but this week he showed good consistency and control on his shots. He has a good game for hard courts and he is very experienced on them. His form is good lately and he even won a Challenger title on clay. Marchenko is a Challenger player with solid ground game and powerful serve. He relies on baseline consistency and has the ability to make winners off both wings, but he is good on the lower Challenger level and still has to work to get on the main tour. He defeated Istomin (injured) and Golubev here so far and he has another Soviet opponent now. He was not too impressive in his game, but his opponents could not maintain their level and he prevailed with consistency. The same thing might work for him against Korolev as the Russian is also an aggressive player who can easily make a lot of errors and lose. However, Korolev was too solid in his last two games and we cannot oppose him. Bookies have set the odds right and we do not want to back Korolev either and will skip this match for betting.

Ginepri v Tipsarevic – Ginepri beat Andreev and Granollers to get to the quarterfinals. Both matches were tough and evenly contested and the American managed to win with more concentration and better game in key moments. He had to battle through two tie-break sets against the Russian and even though he won to zero he had to save four break points and was second best in the opening set against Granollers. Ginepri has huge experience on hard courts and he plays attacking tennis. He relies on the serve and the powerful forehand and these shots have been pretty good this week. Tipsarevic defeated clay courter Koellerer and Rochus with solid serving and controlled and very powerful ground game. Both his matches featured some long and tough rallies and the Serbian proved himself in very good form. He won the title in Mons indoors a week ago and his confidence should be high. Tipsarevic is a very good and talented baseliner with powerful strokes and he likes playing on fast surfaces where his shots turn into winners more often. His major setback is the lack of concentration and confidence at times, but with his recent performances he has boosted both and should be motivated for victory. Ginepri is the more powerful player as he has a big forehand, but he has less power and options on the backhand side. His season so far has been great as he won a title in Indianapolis, but he lacks a lot of match practice as he was out after hip surgery in the first half of the season. Tipsarevic gets our preference as he is the more variable and complete player of the two and his form indoors seems to be very impressive these days, but he is yet to win a match against Ginepri in three attempts so we will need juicy odds above 2 to back him.

Stakhovsky v Youzhny – Stakhovsky is a very good indoors player. He has a powerful serve and good volleys to follow it, but he is also pretty consistent and solid on the baseline when he needs to stay there. His form is very good recently as he reached the final in Mons indoors and he beat Biryukov and Santoro without problems. He served 16 aces and won 73& of the points on serve without getting broken. Youzhny has had a similar performance here as he beat Zeballos and Starace easily. He won 80% of the points on serve and got broken just once so far. The Russian is a very good baseliner with powerful shots off both wings. He likes to play on fast surfaces as he goes for winners and the fast grounds favour attacking players. His big setback is the lack of concentration, but he has been playing well recently and he looks determined and motivated when he plays at home. Youhzny has the serve and the ground game to beat Stakhovsky and the Ukrainian has the better game at the net in his advantage. Youzhny is 5-3 against net rushers on fast surfaces recently and he tends to struggle against more powerful or defensive opponents. Stakhovsky is neither so the Russian gets the nod for us in this match.

Cuevas v Kukushkin – Cuevas made very good transition from the slow South American clay to the fast European indoors hard surface. he beat Lu and Gabashvili with solid and powerful serving (18 aces, 75% of the points on serve won) and he used his powerful forehand well. He needs more time to set up his shots and he likes to run around his backhand which he cannot do here, but his baseline game does not suffer much as he is a very good ground player. His season has been very good so far and he is now up to 52 in the world. Kukushkin passed qualification with good serving and solid baseline game and he defeated Fognini and Odesnik in the main draw. He served badly against the Italian, but dominated the match and he improved his serve and stayed focused to save nine break points and win against Odesnik. The Kazakh is a good and experienced baseliner with a lot of experience indoors. This quarterfinal is his best result on the main tour and it comes after a good spell on hard courts this summer (on Challenger level). Cuevas will have the edge on serve and in power on the ground while Kukushkin has more experience indoors. This is the first event Cuevas plays indoors and despite his serve going very well we cannot back him in this match against a more experienced opponent. Kukushkin on the other hand has less experience on the level and might get too nervous and excited and fall into the serving trap of his opponent. We see the Uruguayan as the favourite because of his serve and good baseline game, but we cannot trust any of the two so we prefer to skip this match.

Stockholm is played indoors on Plexipave which is medium fast and bounces high. It suits big servers as well as good fast baseliners. The title last season was won by Nalbandian who recovers from hip surgery now. Karlovic, Blake, Thomas Johansson and Fish are among the winners of the title. Soderling is the favourite this week as he chases the final Masters in London and he is 13-6 so far here. Second seed Haas is also with a good record 7-4 while JC Ferrero is yet to win a match in the Swedish capital.

Garcia-Lopez v Martin – Garcia-Lopez overcame stomach pains in Asia and he comes to Sweden fit and ready to play. He is a good all-surface player with powerful serve and good angles on the ground. He plays well from the baseline and this is one of his best seasons so far as he claimed a title in Kitzbuhel. Martin is a clay court veteran who rarely plays on other surfaces. He has not played indoors since 2005, but in his only participation in Stockholm in 2005 he reached the quarterfinal beating Ferrer and Malisse. He is a defensive baseliner who needs time for his shots and he has been going down in his career recently. He plays more on Challenger level now, but his ranking gave him the chance to play here and he came. Garcia-Lopez is much better on faster surfaces and he has more practice there and his form is better this season. Martin is here for one match and he surely does not see himself getting deep into the event. Garcia-Lopez is the clear favourite, but we do not advise big stakes on him as he is injury-prone.

Greul v Becker – Greul is on one of the best seasons of his career. He is used to playing on all surfaces, but as he plays on Challenger level in Europe he naturally plays more on clay. He has a good wide kick serve which works for him well on the slow dirt and it will surely work for him on the fast indoor grounds. He plays attacking tennis with a powerful forehand and good defensive backhand and he has enough practice indoors to be competitive. Becker started the year very well and he won three titles on hard courts on Challenger level. He is a fast surface player and he has grown as a player on the US hard courts. He has a solid baseline game with good defence and powerful attacking shots. However, his form has been very bad recently and he lost his last seven matches on tour. Becker has more experience on the surface, but his bad spell which includes losses to worse players than Greul makes him hard to back. Greul on the other hand is in better form and his serve will give him a number of cheap points. He is a good offensive player and he can give Becker a hard time so we are ready to back him on suitable odds above 2.

Montanes v Mayer – Montanes won the title in Bucharest and then took a well deserved rest until Stockholm. The Spaniard is a good clay courter on the best season of his career in which he won two ATP titles. He is a solid baseliner with technical and fast serve and good ground strokes. He likes slow surfaces and has limited experience on the faster ones, but he reached a quarterfinal here last season beating some good fast surface players like Bastl and Johansson. Mayer had some good results on the US hard courts, but his form faded away after that and he is now on a four match losing run. He played more on Challenger level last season and preferred clay, but he turned onto the main tour this year and he played his best tennis on hard courts. However, he has no experience on the European indoor circuit as the only experience he has indoors is in the USA where courts are different. Both players lack matches indoors, but Mayer is the more powerful and aggressive player who goes for winners and can be dangerous if his game goes well. Montanes on the other hand will look to take advantage of the bad form Mayer is in and will defend and force extra shots from his opponent. Montanes is a clay courter and we cannot back him on hard, but has done well here last year and we do not want to underestimate him and will skip this match.

Johansson J v Luczak – Johansson made a great comeback in Malaysia where he defeated Hewitt and took a set off Gasquet. The Swede was forced out of the tour by injuries and he even considered retirement, but he decided that his body can handle the pressure and came back last season in Stockholm. He beat Mahut here in 2008 and lost to Nalbandian and he has a wild card this season. He reached the semis here back in 2006 and he has great memories from the event. He is a player with booming serve and big forehand. He plays the kind of game that is perfect for fast surfaces and he has the tools to be good in his home land. Luczak is an Aussie of Polish origin and he has been tearing the Challenger tour apart this season. He is 52-24 on that level, but he has played most of his matches on clay. He has the solid and powerful ground game to be competitive on clay and he goes for his shots, but he lacks experience indoors. He played his last indoors match on tour two years ago in Stockholm and he is 3-3 here in three appearances. Johnasson has much more experience in Stockholm and on fast surfaces in general and he proved in Malaysia that his body can handle the pressure of a whole match. Luczak is not comfortable on fast grounds and despite the surface being medium fast Johansson has the edge with his big serve and powerful flat shots.

Hernych v Monaco – Hernych has not played since the US Open without a reported injury so we consider him having a good rest in the meantime. He is a good fats surface player who takes the ball early and goes for his shots in attack. He has enough experience indoors and can produce the needed results on the surface, but he has been inconsistent and shaky this season. Monaco had a hip injury that bothered him in Asia and he lost early in Shanghai to have some rest and travel to Europe. He is a clay courter with powerful serve and solid ground game. He lacks experience on faster surfaces this season, but he is not without weapons on them as he is powerful on the ground and can make big shots and winners from both sides. However, his fitness is still questionable. Hernych can be a good pick on the surface, but he lacks match practice recently and that along with his bad form this season will stop us from backing him here. Monaco on the other hand is still rusty after the injury and despite his good record here (5-5 with a ¼-final in 200&) we cannot trust him either so we will skip this match.

Moscow is played on RuKortHard surface which is classified as fast and indoors plays very fast. It suits big serving types, but it was carpet two years ago and therefore stats before 2007 are irrelevant as long as the surface goes. Kunitsyn won the title last season with a dominant attacking performance and Davydenko has won three titles overall here. Dent, Mathieu and Andreev are among the winners too. Davydenko is the top seed this season and he is 17-3 here, but his title in Shanghai might put him off playing in Moscow. It is a decision to be made later, but until he withdraws he remains the top favourite for the title.

Starace v Donskoy – Starace played in Napoli last and then took three weeks off tennis. The Italian is a clay court player with solid serve and defence. He does not like or fare well on faster surfaces and he has not played a lot indoors. His last victory indoors was two years ago. However, he has the serve and the attacking shots to be competitive and he faces a suitable opponent here. Donskoy has limited practice on the tour and his best result was a quarterfinal in Helsinki last season where he defeated compatriot Korolev. He plays more on clay as he is a decent baseliner, but he has played in Moscow twice so far and he is familiar with the surface. Starace has more experience on the tour and he has more power than his opponent. Donskoy is solid on the ground and he can be dangerous if he meets an attacking opponent, but against a controlled aggressive defender like Starace he stands no big chance. There is always the chance of Starace misfiring though as he has no practice on fast surfaces recently so we will not want to back him as a big favourite in this match - Big money gone on Donskoy to win and the market on this match is off the board. We see no injury to Starace so we suppose it is just because a lot of people are backing the local boy to take the victory.

Zeballos v Youzhny – Zeballos has never played indoors so far. He is a good all-court player with solid baseline game and he plays well on hard as well as on clay. He is 57-21 on both surfaces this season, but on Challenger level and he won five titles (3 on clay and 2 on hard). He lacks match practice indoors and the surface in Moscow will surprise him with the speed. He played on grass this season and he took a set off Petzschner in Newport with his solid serve. He is a leftie which is another advantage to him and he will have some cheap points on serve in Russia. Youzhny plays at home here and he likes fast surfaces. He is a powerful serving player and has the skills to make winners on the ground. The fast surface will suit his game, but overall he has not done very well after the surface change here and is 1-2 in the last two years. He has returned to form recently with a quarterfinal in Malaysia and a final in Tokyo. He missed Shanghai and took some rest before his home tournament. The Russian looks in good mood and that is a key to his game as he is a very shaky player mentally. Zeballos lacks experience indoors and he meets a powerful offensive opponent who has better skills than him in general and on this ground in particular. We have said before that Youzhny is not to be backed as a favorite and he will be such in this match so we will not advise backing him, but he surely looks like a sure winner.

Cuevas v Lu – Cuevas is a clay courter who played mostly on Challenger level before this season. However, he started appearing more on the main tour this year and he reached a semifinal in Hamburg and a quarterfinal in Bucharest. He is a powerful serving player with good attacking forehand and he is in form at the moment. He just won the title in Montevideo, but he will have a tough time switching to the very fast surface in Moscow. He has not played indoors in the last five seasons and he lacks experience on the grounds. His opponent Lu is a fast surface player. He suffered injuries and illness this season, but he is now fit. He is a defensive baseliner who counter-punches well, but he also has some good angles when he turns defence into attack. He lost his last four matches indoors and overall this is a bad season for him, but not due to his game. Cuevas has the serve to be competitive indoors, but he needs time for his big forehand and he will not have a lot of it. Lu is better suited for this surface as he is fast and very solid on the ground. Lu should get the nod in this match, but his form is not too good recently so we do not advise any big bets on him.

Beck K v Gabashvili – Beck is a powerful serving player who likes faster grounds. He has played most of his tennis on hard courts, but after knee and wrist injuries from last four years he has gone down to playing more on Challenger level. He has a lot of experience indoors and his ground strokes are fast and powerful in line with the surface. Gabashvili also has a big serve and he uses it well on faster surfaces. He plays very attacking tennis and goes for his shots even when he has no opening. That has given him the reputation of an ultra attacking and mentally weak player. He has played a lot on clay this season and that turned out to be his best surface as he had no success on faster ones. He has played in Moscow a number of times, but has not made it past the second round so far. Beck is more experienced on the surface this season, but his opponent has more power on serve and on the ground. The local player knows the surface well enough to be competitive even though he is on a bad season on fast surfaces. Beck has not done anything impressive recently and despite being more suited for hard courts we do not trust him in this match. Gabashvili on the other hand is the kind of player not to be backed because of his risky style and mental weakness so we need odds above 2.25 to back him.

Davydenko v Stepanek – Nikolay Davydenko moved closer to capturing his fourth season title after winning in Hamburg (clay), Croatia (clay) and Malaysia (indoors hard) as he beat Chilean Fernando Gonzalez 6-3 7-5. He won 38 of 47 service points (87%) to improve to a 46-13 match record (18-6 on hard courts) on the season. The Russian won 81% of his total serve points giving away just nine points on his serve which is mazing performance having into consideration Gonzalez solid return. "I know he has a very good forehand and a very good serve," said Davydenko of his third round opponent.  "At the beginning I had no chance.  Then he lost his rhythm.  My return was very important, because he always stayed under pressure.  I know I have very good control from the baseline and I can win points.  That was my thinking about waiting, when I have chance to break him." Radek Stepanek was leading Stanislas Wawrinka 3-6 7-6 4-2 when the Swiss retired after two hours and 22 minutes. Wawrinka was dictating play for big parts of the match until second set tie-break when Stepanek showed nerves and close out the set. The Czech is a great fighter with strong mentality. Davydenko and Stepanek share the head-to-head 4-4 with most of the matches being tough and competitive. The way Davydenko executes his baseline approach makes him big favorite against the Czech. Stepanek struggled to win points in rallies against Wawrinka, so he should have even more difficulties in the quarter-final.

Lopez v Soderling – Feliciano Lopez came from a set behind against Jurgen Melzer to win 5-7 7-6 6-1. It has been a tough year for Feliciano Lopez going 9-19 W-L record in 2009 in main draw tournaments before this week. But here at Shanghai he was very focused and most important he played aggressive tennis from start to end of his matches and it paid off. Melzer lost and admitted the superiority of his opponent during the second and third set. Now the Austrian will concentrate on the doubles event (partnering Knowle) where they have a chance to reach the final doubles Master but need to win at Shanghai. Robin Soderling did not need to do anything extraordinary to beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga as the Frenchman was very shaky and made numerous unforced errors. 25-year-old Soderling, who also beat Tsonga at Hamburg this season on clay, won 74% of service points and hit eight aces for his 6-3 6-3 victory in 70 minutes.  Tsonga had his serve broken four times as he won 54% of his points on serve. "He was playing really good at the beginning," said Soderling.  "I expected him to play well because he's a great player and he's in good form, coming in from Tokyo.  His level dropped a little bit after I broke him the first time.  But I think even though the score was 3 and 3, I think it was a pretty close match, and I'm very happy that I played well, because I really needed to play well today." Lopez holds a 3-2 advantage to Soderling in recent meeting at ATP Tour level but their last match was about three years ago. They also met at Sunrise Challenger semi-finals earlier this season and the Swede won comfortably 6-4 6-4. The history between these two has little effect on the odds as currently Soderling performs at a lot higher level than Lopez. The fast conditions should favor the Spaniard who has strong serve and capable serve & volley approach but his movement is where his problems come from. Soderling is big favorite and should progress in two close sets.

Simon v Djokovic – Gilles Simon defeated unseeded Tomas Berdych 6-3 6-4 and entered the quarter-finals in style. The Frenchman established his usual defensive approach and waited for the Czech to make a wrong step. Simon has a solid return and won 44% of his total return points breaking his opponent serve three times out of six attempts. Novak Djokovic cruised into the quarter-finals after 6-4 6-2 against Rainer Schuettler of Germany. He dropped 14 points on serve and hit five aces to win 71% of his total points on serve. The Serbian was too strong for the 33-year-old Schuettler and dominated the majority of baseline exchanges. "I've been working on physical strength and fitness a lot in last couple of months, and it's been paying off. When you are playing week after week, it's important to be physically strong, and that gives you advantage over your opponents,” he said. Djokovic will meet Gilles Simon for the fifth time after winning the last three meetings. Simon is one of those players does not beat themselves as they constantly get balls back into play without making mistakes. The Frenchman’s movement is light and smooth covering the court well, but he lacks enough power in his shots. The Djoker has a 3-5 record in finals and last week lifted the China Open title in Beijing (d. Cilic), so he definitely is the man in form at the moment and enters the match-up with Simon as a big favorite. He knows the recipe of prevailing over the Frenchman and should knock him out of Shanghai.

Nadal v Ljubicic – Rafael Nadal was too strong for his compatriot Tommy Robredo and stormed past him 6-1 6-4. He constantly attacked his opponent weaker one-handed backhand and gained control over the majority of rallies. Nadal powered through the first set but went 0-2 down in the second before quickly breaking back, then leveling at 4-4. He broke Robredo to love in the ninth game and then went 40-0 up on his own serve and won the match on his third match point. Gael Monfils pulled out of his third round clash with Ivan Ljubicic when trailing by a set and break after complaining of sickness. It was 6-2 3-0 in favor of Ljubicic when Monfils walked to him to shake hands. End of season and ATP busy calendar force many players to either stay home and cure or withdraw if they play unfit. Ljubicic was having his usual strong serving performance and manage to keep his focus high despite knowing something was wrong with his opponent. The Croat has one career victory over Nadal but that result came in 2005, too long ago to have any effect into their upcoming match.  Since that loss Nadal has went on to win four consecutive victories over Ljubicic, two on clay, two on hard courts. On theory Nadal should have an easy match-up as he will continuously try to push Ljubicic’ one-handed backhand with high bouncing top spin balls, but even where Nadal has defeated Ljubicic in the past, the matches have gone the distance. Last week the Spaniard suffered a humiliating loss to a player from Croatia, an academy that generates big-hitting power servers. But Ljubicic form should not be over-estimated – yes, he beat quality opposition like Verdasco and Monfils but both played poor and deserved to lose. Nadal enters the quarter-final as a huge favorite, but at those odds he is not worth betting combos or singles.

Monfils v Ljubicic – Monfils played badly in the first set against Hewitt spilling error all over the court, but he then became more aggressive and powerful in the later stages of the second set and that gave fruit as his opponent faded away. The Frenchman was the more solid player in the decider and he surprised the Aussie with more risk and attacking game which brought him the victory. Monfils is a complete player with powerful serve, athletic defence and powerful attacking shots who plays well on all surfaces. He played a lot of matches recently (13 in 22 days) and he is not in his best fitness condition – that is why we do not advise any bets on him this week. Ljubicic is a tough fighter with big serve and flat attacking ground game. He has a nice one-handed backhand and he counts on his serve a lot, which is not bad on this fast surface. He fired 24 aces in his two matches and he defeated Benneteau and Verdasco to get to the third round. His main weapon is going smoothly as he won over 70% of the points behind serve and that makes him a dangerous opponent. He leads Monfils 4-2 in past meetings, but all matches have been played while the Croat was above Monfils in the rankings. Things are different now and the Frenchman is younger, fitter and more powerful in general. However, his fitness is questionable with his busy schedule and his power and accuracy are also suspect having in mind his display. Ljubicic can be powerful and aggressive, but Monfils has the defence to make him play extra shots and the Croat is not in condition to last a long match without any lapses in his game so we are not keen to support him in this match. Bookies see Monfils as the favourite and so do we, but for the reasons stated above we will skip this match.

Melzer v Lopez – Lopez took full advantage of the ill Garcia-Lopez and the out-of-form Ferrer and here he is in the third round in Shanghai. The Spanish leftie is not in form this summer, but he is a confidence player and his spirits should be high after the two victories here. He is a powerful server with big forehand and good volleys, but he lacks powerful and consistent backhand. He does well on hard courts in general, but he has lost all three matches against Melzer on this surface. The Austrian also had luck in his draw as he faced an out-of-form Chardy and an injured Del Potro. He is also left-handed which takes away any advantage any of the two is used to having against most players on tour. Melzer is not a net rusher though as he has a solid defensive baseline game. He is also a good doubles player and he has the skills to play serve and volley too so his game is pretty much complete and variable. The Austrian has the edge on the ground as he has a much better backhand side and he has the good serve and volleys to match his opponent there. Lopez has the advantage only in power and having in mind his bad form it is not enough to trust him in this match. Melzer obviously has a way to handle the Spaniard and he has been pretty consistent this season so we vote for him and his better all court game as the better choice for a winner.

Davydenko v Gonzalez – Davydenko is making a great finish of the season and he is trying to get into the final Masters. He has played a lot of matches recently, but he is a player who improves with the matches played so that does not bother him. He lost to Cilic last week and had a couple of days to rest and get ready for Shanghai. His game is aggressive and he takes the ball early which often troubles his opponents. His serve has also been very consistent and dangerous recently. He defeated Kunitsyn in the second round here without any problems. Gonzalez had enough problems against Zverev in his first match, but his opponent injured himself and retired in the decider. Bellucci had problems on serve and that made him a weak opponent for the Chilean in the second round. Gonzalez is picking his events this season and he has picked well so far as he does well on the events he plays. He is a powerful attacking player with big serve and forehand, but he lacks consistency and power on the backhand side. Davydenko has the skills and the angles to aim at the weaker side of his opponent and he takes the ball early which will make Gonzalez run more and play a lot of backhands. Gonzalez has more power on the ground, but he lacks overall consistency and if his opponent goes deep and on the backhand side he is lost. Davydenko is clever and skilful enough to know what to do and he has done that successfully against Gonzalez five times before so he should be able to take the victory in this match.

Stepanek v Wawrinka – Stepanek played two very good matches. He is a serve and volley player with flat ground strokes and good technical serve. He hits the ball with great accuracy and count on it to make good approaches to the net. He likes the fast hard courts and uses them well to his advantage. He defeated Ferrero and Beck without dropping a set and he is making a good run here. Wawrinka on the other hand was far from impressive against Kubot. He was on the verge of losing the match on a number of times, but his opponent let him back in the match and finally handed him the win. Wawrinka could not even break his opponent’s serve, but two tie-breaks gave him the needed result. He then took advantage of Roddick spraining his knee and he is now in the third round. His game revolves around the powerful one-handed backhand and solid serve. However, he was very shaky against Kubot and he played some passive and ugly tennis. Stepanek is trying to get back in form before the Davis Cup final and he is making a good job of it so far. Wawrinka on the other hand looks out of form and he will have trouble with the deep flat shots of the Czech and his net rushing. The Swiss man will have to be precise in his passing shots and quick in his reaction and he has struggled to do that recently. Stepanek has the simpler game for the surface and he has the upper hand in this match with his aggressive and pressing style. The bookies have set the odds right so we find no value in betting though.

Soderling v Tsonga – Jo-Wilfried Tsonga knocked out Chinese wild card and No. 393 in the rankings Zeng 6-3 6-3 in just 61 minutes. He won 86% of service points, hit three aces and converted four of seven break point opportunities. During the second set the big hitting Frenchman surrendered just one point on his serve. Robin Soderling won the battle of the big servers even though he was out-aced 9-12. The Swede was better from the baseline with his powerful flat shots. The 25-year-old Soderling improved to 41-17 this year with a title in Bastad (clay). Both Tsonga and Soderling attempt to qualify for the final Masters event in London. Tsonga already added three titles this season – pretty remarkable achievement. He won in Tokyo last week and could be a bit tired because he also plays doubles in Shanghai (partnering Benneteau) but his match against Zeng was shorter than practice. Both have pretty similar stats this season – Tsonga has the edge in serving while Soderling is better on the ground. It is difficult to predict what will happen but Soderling has some minor shoulder concerns which might prove crucial. At those odds we don’t see a betting opportunity and prefer to stay away.

Simon v Berdych – Gilles Simon beat Victor Troicki for a second consecutive time in ten days 6-3 6-4. He showed his usual consistent defensive game, did not give away almost any easy points and changed the pace of his shots quite well. This style disturbed Troicki who could not find his rhythm. Simon won 70% of the points behind his serve and broke his opponent’s serve three times out of five attempts. Tomas Berdych posted his first and probably last career victory over Marat Safin 3-6 6-4 6-4. He withstood 18 aces from Safin’s racquet and saved nine of 13 break points for two hours and 16 minutes. Safin missed a great opportunity to beat Berdych after leading 4-0 in the third set with two breaks ahead but then was unable to close out the match and lost six consecutive games. It was a mental blow for the Russian who very much handed the victory to the Czech. Berdych asked for a medical break in the first set with some kind of leg injury and since then his first serve was weaker than usual. He won 28/51 (55%) of his first serves during the second and third set. Simon and Berdych share the head-to-head 2-2 but the match-up is very much in the hands of the Frenchman. If he can establish his solid defensive approach, then Berdych chances are restricted to minimum. The Czech is far away from his usual faultless aggressive attacking tennis and is a clear outsider.

Nadal v Robredo – Top-seeded Rafael Nadal beat American James Blake for the second time in a week 6-2 6-7 6-4. He started very strong and aggressive and soon was on the verge of closing the first against a shaky Blake. But then the American improved his level, broke Nadal serve to level the games in the second set and won the tie-breaker. The match was very similar to those they played a week ago in Beijing, but in the end the World No. 2 deserved his progress in to the next round. “I had the match under control, set and break, playing really well.  But then anything can happen when you are 4 All in the third.” Tommy Robredo saved three match points in the second set tie-break to defeat qualifier Florian Mayer of Germany 4-6 7-6 6-4 in two hours and nine minutes. Robredo was shaky for big parts of the match and deserved to win as much as Mayer. Nadal leads Robredo 4-0 in previous meetings but they haven’t played against each other since Shanghai 2006. Without underestimating Robredo he was lucky not to have played against Nadal for the last three years as it would have been more than four defeats. Nadal knows how to play against players unable to hit through him. Robredo likes to build his points in rallies but lacks the power to trouble the World No. 2, who is deservedly a big favorite to progress.

Schuettler v Djokovic – Rainer Schuettler needed only one set against his compatriot Tommy Haas who pulled out injured at 4-6. The 33-year-old Schuettler is a fairly good baseline player but lacks consistency. As a former Aussie Open runner-up he enjoys playing on hard courts but his form and performance decreased significantly since then. Novak Djokovic proved that he is the best fit player at the moment and kept on his astonishing performance from last week at Beijing. The Serbian gave no chance to the Italian Fabio Fognini and beat him 6-3 6-1. The Djoker frustrated his opponent by a solid return winning 54% of the points on Fognini serve. It is hard to see any particular player who will stop him from reaching the final in Shanghai. The variation, change of pace and tactical discipline are the best on Tour at the moment. Two straight set victories on hard courts mark the history between Djokovic and Schuettler and the German is yet to win a set. Djokovic will dominate the majority of baseline exchanges and is expected to cruise to victory again in two sets. We will be much surprised if Schuettler wins a set but it is highly unlikely.

Nadal v Blake – Blake faced Karlovic in the first round and after a shaky start he managed to wear out his opponent and finally get two break of his serve in the decider. The American is a powerful player who relies on his serve and forehand. He likes fast surfaces and has huge experience on hard courts. His form is not the best at the moment and he lost to Nadal last week in Beijing. The Spaniard was in control for most of the match in the Olympic capital, but failed to serve it out twice and made things difficult for himself. Nadal is well known for his defensive retrieving and top spin shots. the surface in Shanghai is supposed to be faster than Beijing and that should favour Blake, but the American is not very consistent of the ground and heavily relies on his confidence. That is the reason he often gets outplayed if his opponent knows how to handle him and Nadal obviously knows. The Spaniard has the advantage of being a leftie and he will look to play on Blake’s backhand which guarantees him the edge in the match. Despite being out with injury Nadal is now fit and looked good last week so we do not see any possible surprise here.

Haas v Schuettler – Tommy Haas did not find any difficulties overcoming his doubles partner Benjamin Becker 7-6 6-4. He won 78% of his total points on serve giving away only one break point chance which Becker missed. Haas has improved his service this season a lot compared to last season but the main reason for his consistency has been his lack of injuries. He struggled a lot in the past with his fitness which prevented him from his best possible performance on many occasions. He will next meet another compatriot, Rainer Schuettler, who despite winning against Vassallo-Arguello 6-4 3-6 7-6 did not convince he is anywhere near to his best form. Schuettler passed qualifications here ousting Norman and Eitzinger and generally plays his best tennis on hard courts and fast surfaces. But even his best tennis will not be enough to edge past Tommy Haas whose clean and powerful execution and shot variation will be too much for the 33-year old Schuettler. They share the head-to-head 4-4 but Haas has dominated in the past four meetings, three of them on hard courts. He is the clear and deserved favorite to progress in to the third round.

Safin v Berdych – Marat Safin was never in danger against local wild card Gong and prevailed 6-4 6-4. The difference in class was evident and despite the Chinese winning eight games it was only a matter of time Safin to close out the match. The Russian likes the condition and plays better than the way he played the rest of his season so far. His attitude has improved a lot and it makes people regret he will retire soon. Tomas Berdych was very lucky to knock out Marin Cilic in three tough sets. The Czech played poor by his standards – he won three points less overall than his opponent but converted 80% (4/5) of the break point chances he faced. Berdych was trailing 2-4 down with a break in the decisive set but leveled the sets 4-4, then saved several break points on his serve and broke Cilic serve immediately after that to seal the victory. There is little left from his ultra-aggressiveness and precision; he looked more like a passive grinding type who was afraid to take any additional risk in his shots. It speaks for a lack of confidence and he will need it more than anything as the Davis Cup final is knocking on the door (in December). Safin leads Berdych 2-0 with both meetings on clay last year. On theory both are powerful players with affection to faster courts but their ability to execute clean offensive approach is under question. Berdych is undoubtedly the better player but the confidence advantage goes to Safin. Both are pretty unpredictable players and we will not risk our money.

Mayer v Robredo – Both players faced unfit and troubled opposition in the first round. Robredo beat Llodra and was then forced to wash his hands in precaution as the Frenchman admitted to have caught a virus. Mayer on the other hand defeated compatriot Petzschner who is in bad form and has a neck pain that bothers him. Robredo is a defensive baseliner with good baseline skills. He is not in great form recently as he is just 5-6 on hard courts this summer, but he did well on US Open where the surface was similar to this one. Mayer is making a late comeback on tour after wrist injury. He was once No 33 in the world, but then went out of the top 100. He plays mostly on Challenger level, but his current ranking of 79 will allow him to get involved on the main tour more. He is a tall guy with wide reach and powerful serve. He plays well on all surfaces, but since he plays more in Europe he is more used to clay courts. Robredo has beaten the German twice and he likes facing such big hitting opponents as he has the variety and the defence to hold them off. He will mix up his game and move Mayer around to prevent him from hitting big ground strokes. Mayer on the other hand will look to unleash his forehand and use his backhand slice well and keep Robredo busy on the baseline. Robredo is the more experienced player and he has the defence to make Mayer run and play the extra shots. The German is not too skilful on the ground and has no big experience on the hard courts on this level so he is a deserved favourite.

Monfils v Hewitt – Monfils has been playing very well recently, but his schedule has also been very tough. He has played 12 matches in 21 days and having in mind that he is prone to fatigue and injuries we cannot back him in this match. Apart from that his form is great – he got a title in Metz and a semi in Tokyo – and his victory over Mathieu came in confident fashion. He is a powerful server with big forehand and very good defence. He is athletic at the back and can get to any ball so it takes a very powerful and in-form opponent to take him out (Tsonga and Davydenko did that recently). Hewitt is a powerful and in-form player as he got more than one victory in eight of his last ten tournaments. His style though is not the aggressive powerful game and he uses the opponent’s pace and power to create his own shots. In that matter, Monfils could be a very difficult opponent for Hewitt as the Frenchman has the ability to vary his game and can mix up drop shots, volleys and powerful baseline strokes in his selection. Hewitt on the other hand is more limited in all departments and that makes him the outsider. Having all that in mind we agree with setting Monfils as the favourite, but as we mentioned above we do not trust his fitness enough so we will not place any wagers on this match.

Ljubicic v Verdasco – Verdasco is playing very well now after a bad mid-season spell. He got to the final in Malaysia and then lost in the quarterfinals in Beijing. He had enough time to rest and get used to the courts in Shanghai. His game is built around his technical leftie serve and powerful forehand, but he lacks good movement at the back and a competitive backhand. He has a lingering foot injury which he is going to operate after the season ends, but it does not bother him when he is fresh. However, he looked tired and moved badly against Djokovic in Beijing. Ljubicic defeated Benneteau in the usual three sets with the usual good serving. He fired 16 aces and won 71% of the points on serve against the Frenchman. The Croat is a powerful flat hitting baseliner with good one-handed backhand and big serve. However, he is not very fluent when moving on court nowadays and his form is in ups and downs. Verdasco will have the edge in power and he will match Ljubicic on serve with his leftie serves. The Spaniard should be better on the court, but his foot troubles might still bother him so we will not dare to back him. Ljubicic has not beaten a top player since May and he lacks the consistency to finish matches fast so we do not want to back him here neither and we will skip this match for betting.

Del Potro v Melzer – Del Potro was down with jet-lag and stomach pain last week and he played badly to lose against qualifier Vasselin. The Argentinean is still to win a match after his US Open title and he should be better prepared for this event. The surface will not suit his game perfectly, but he will use the fast courts to make more winners with his booming forehand and serve. The bounces might trouble him as he is a tall guy, but he has a long reach that will help him in defence. Melzer looked in great form against Chardy, but the Frenchman produced a below par performance. Melzer made nine aces, did not get broken and lost just eight points on serve. he is a powerful leftie with good defensive skills, but he also has a good serve and can be dangerous at the net. He will use his serve well against Del Potro, but his ground game should be a bit troubled by the fast courts and the power of his opponent. Del Potro has won all five meetings between the two so he obviously handles the leftie ground game of the Austrian well enough. The US Open champion has a crucial edge in power and consistency in attack and he looks like a big favourite for the victory. However, as we said last week, we will not back him until we see him get a victory after his big title so we will skip this one.

Lopez v Ferrer – Lopez is in really bad form this summer. He had lost six matches in a row after getting out of Europe in July, but he managed to beat an ill Garcia-Lopez in the first round and broke the trend. The Spaniard is a leftie with powerful serve and forehand and slices on the backhand side. He has good volleys and plays attacking tennis, but with his current bad spell he presents no real danger at the net. He made seven aces and won 71% of the points on serve against Garcia-Lopez, but was pretty modest in return. Ferrer is a defensive baseliner who also looks pretty out of form on hard courts. He is 4-4 on the surface this summer and his good retrieving skills seem not to work too well on the fast surface. He hits the ball with a lot of power and spin and he has a solid serve. He defeated Gasquet in his opening match, but the Frenchman was really bad on court and pretty much gave him the win. Both players are not in good form and Lopez leads 5-3 in previous meetings. Lopez also leads 5-1 on fast surfaces, but we really cannot trust him with his current form in mind. Ferrer also looks very shaky and vulnerable so there is no telling who will find his game first. Ferrer is the more passive player who does not have to create and therefore he gets to be the favourite, but he is not worth a bet.

Soderling v Almagro – These two will meet for the fourth time this season. Soderling leads 2-1 and he has been playing great tennis recently. He has huge serve and forehand and he uses them well on hard courts making a lot of winners. He is not a very fast mover on court, but makes up with his reach and he usually dominates rallies unless the opponent is wise enough to feed him deep and fast balls. He played well last week in Beijing and he defeated Hanescu yesterday here without any problems. He fired 9 aces and won 75% of the points on serve. Almagro is a clay courter with big kick serve and he uses his serve very well on the fast surfaces. He is an attacking player with good ground skills. His form is not very good and he naturally prefers slower courts which give him time to set up better shots. He beat Kohlschreiber in a tight match yesterday having to play two tie-breaks and spending over 2 hours on court. His serve bailed him out as he fired 23 aces and saved eight break points. Soderling will have the edge on serve and on the ground with his flat powerful shots. He is the more powerful and experienced on the surface and he has the more controlled and patient game for the grounds. The Swede is motivated and in great form so we cannot oppose him in this match in which he is a big favourite to progress.

Zeng v Tsonga – Zeng played the match of his life against a shaky and weak Sela and made the best of his wild card. The Chinese is 28 now and he made his first victory on the tour which is definitely the highlight of his career. He is a solid baseliner with decent retrieving skills and he managed to keep the ball in play well and long enough to force errors out of his opponent. However, he now meets an opponent way out of his league. Tsonga just won the title in Tokyo where the surface was close to this one so he has no adjustments to do to his game. His only setback is that this will be his 9th match in 15 days, but he had two days to rest and the opponent he meets is more like a practice partner. Tsonga is a powerful server who will make full use of the fast courts and he has a lot of power on the ground and very good volleys. Zeng made his breakthrough, but he has no weapons to trouble Tsonga and he is worse in every department so we really do not give him many chances for anything except an honourable loss (if Tsonga decides to save some energy).

Simon v Troicki – Gilles Simon plays baseline defensive tennis with great counter punching and winning shots from impossible positions. He likes playing on hard courts and the fast conditions in Shanghai will help his counter attacking approach. His knee feels good and it requires really top performance from his opponents to knock him out as the Frenchman is great fighter for every ball. He won the title at Bangkok and should be well suited by the conditions. Viktor Troicki was not tested at all by the injured Monaco who struggled big time placing any powerful serves and eventually got broken seven times. The Serbian has a very useful first serve but a weaker second and get exposed to players with strong returning skills. But he should be satisfied with his end-of-season performance because injuries ruined the middle part of his 2009 season. Troicki plays fairly solid baseline game but he was well beaten at Bangkok by Simon who also leads 3-0 in previous encounters. I would be surprised if the Serbian has not learnt his lesson from a week ago, because he has the necessary skills to come up with different tactical plan against Simon and emerge from the match-up victorious. But his chances remain small when facing a top 10 opponent like the Frenchman.

Fognini v Djokovic – Fabio Fognini of Italy is a counter punching player with great defense who has big experience playing on clay courts but insignificant on faster surfaces. He still uses his grinding weapons very well and it works against opponents who are unable to hit through him. Fognini passed qualification and much to the surprise of many pundits won against a powerful in-form player like Gulbis. The Latvian did not serve as strong as he used to the last two weeks and Fognini took advantage of his erratic second serve and won 67% of the points. Novak Djokovic won the event in Beijing and assured his new No. 3 ranking ahead of Andy Murray. The Serbian has a 63-17 W-L record in 2009 and proved how well he can perform in Asia – it was his second title after Shanghai last year. The level Djokovic performs at the moment is very high mixing attack and defense, varying the speed of his shots from the baseline and destroying the rhythm of his opponents. If he can keep that level in 2009 then he can certainly increase his grand slam titles count. Djokovic is very strong mentally and tactically. There is a small chance that he will start slow at Shanghai staying defensive in his first matches until he settles into the tournament, but it is no surprise to see him the favorite to win the title here. Fognini is a tough nut to crack but his top level is miles away from that of Djokovic and unless the Serbian’s attitude is poor, there is way he can lose. He hadn’t lost his first match for the last 17 tournaments he took part in, and it is unreal to think Fognini will knock him out here.

Monfils v Mathieu – Monfils looks in great form at the moment. He lost to eventual champion Tsonga last week and had two days to rest, which is very important for him as his schedule has been pretty tight lately. The Frenchman is 12-3 in his last four events on fast surfaces and he shows some promising things on court. Monfils is very fast on the baseline with great defence and retrieving skills. He has a powerful serve and very big forehand and he can play serve and volley too as he did last week against Wawrinka. His all court game is almost unbreakable on a good day and he has a great variety and physical strength. Mathieu is in worse form and his recent results are not good. He lost to Ljubicic last week and he is just 5-5 on fast surfaces after the clay season. Hi good result this year came on the red dirt and he looks like a player who needs more time to make his shots. he is a powerful baseliner with good serve and backhand, but he lacks mental strength and he plays in ups and downs usually. Monfils will present a difficult task to Mathieu as he has power, defence and variety of game which will trouble his opponent. Mathieu on the other hand will probably have the upper hand only on the backhand side and even that is not for sure. Mathieu leads the past meetings 2-0, but the current form and pretty much all other things point at Monfils as the more likely winner.

Hewitt v Isner – Lleyton Hewitt had troubles last week with an old injury. The Aussie knee was sore and restricted his running on the court against Youzhny but despite that he fought hard and lost by a small margin. Hewitt is about to play on his favorite surface. He had more than three days rest so he will definitely feel better physically than against Hewitt is in good form at the moment – 33-19 overall 2009 W-L record, 15-11 on hard courts and 90-42 on hard courts for the last five seasons. John Isner on the other hand is not playing his top tennis in Asia. The courts are fast enough to favor his hard hitting style but somehow he failed to make an impact. His climax was US Open when knocked out compatriot Roddick to reach the fourth round. Isner is tall and powerful hitter with huge serve and forehand. His last two defeats against Troicki and Wawrinka speak of his inability to win points in baseline exchanges. And without that against even more accomplished player like Hewitt the American’s chances decrease significantly. Bookies paid too much attention on Hewitt knee concerns from last week while compiling the odds for the upcoming match-up. Otherwise the Aussie should be much bigger favorite than 1.5-1.6. He has excellent return and will make Isner run a lot behind the baseline.

Benneteau v Ljubicic – Julien Benneteau is a good all court player with solid defence and good fighting skills. He has a technical serve and often follows it to the net on faster surfaces and together with his reasonable solid baseline game makes him tough one to beat. Benneteau is 8-10 on hard courts this season and 22-24 on any surface. Ivan Ljubicic has never been great returner but what marks his 2009 season is that his serving percentage got lower compared to last season. Probably age factor or lack of focus due to family reasons can be some kind of explanation but it’s a fact. The Croat is not the fastest on court nowadays and his form has not been that great as it used to be. He likes playing on slow to medium/fast surfaces where he has enough time to prepare his shots. The Decoturf in Shanghai might be fast for him but only if his opponent is able to generate much power. Benneteau is not a powerful shooting machine, so Ljubicic will have his chances to dictate the rhythm of the match. The Croat leads 3-1 in previous meetings and it is more than five years since he lost for first and last time to Benneteau. Ljubicic is a small favorite and has slightly better chance to edge past the Frenchman.

Chardy v Melzer – Jeremy Chardy of France is a solid baseliner who uses well his height to generate more power in his serve and ground strokes. He is making his best career season so far and won his first ATP title in Stuttgart on clay. Chardy is part of the new generation players from France who have grown together and are used to playing consistent baseline game. They can play both on clay and hard courts, especially indoors, but Chardy is the one who prefers clay courts where he has more time to prepare for his shots. Still, he has the skills to compete on fast conditions as his serve is really good. Jurgen Melzer was very busy playing tennis in the past two weeks. Singles semi-finalist in Bangkok he won the doubles event on Sunday in Tokyo together with his partner Julien Knowle. The Austrian is a capable left-hander with strong serve and decent ground game. He tries to mix up his shots and destroy the rhythm of his opponents changing net rushing with solid baseline exchanges, slice and flat shots. Chardy and Melzer are yet to meet in ATP tour match. Melzer is definitely in better form but he played poor opponents compared to those the Frenchman lost to – Sodeling, Murray, Djokovic, Davydenko, Andreev. Chardy has better ranking and improved his return since last season while staying at the same high serving level. It is worth backing the Frenchman to progress at odds above 2.0.

Soderling v Hanescu – Robin Soderling was very impressive in Beijing and played his usual aggressive attacking tennis with powerful flat shots. But he met Djokovic at the semi-finals whose controlled aggression seemed better on the medium to fast courts. The Swede is in excellent form and only a top 10 player can match his strong performance. Unless injured, he is unlikely to lose to anyone outside top 10 rankings. Victor Hanescu retired in Gstaad several months ago stating stomach illness and despite it was not anything serious, he was not able to perform at his previous high level. He went 4-7 at different tournaments on three continents and is nowhere near his best. The Romanian is used to play on slow surfaces and has troubles reading opponents serves on fast conditions. Hanescu has powerful serve himself and will certainly win several easy points but will not match Soderling power off the ground. The last two times they met at indoors hard, Soderling won five sets and surrendered a total of nine games which speaks about his domination over Hanescu. The Swede is deservedly huge favorite and will progress comfortably into the next round.

Kohlschreiber v Almagro – Philipp Kohlschreiber reached a reasonable level of consistency for the last several seasons and was able to stay convincingly at the top 25 ranked players. Last year the German won the title in Auckland (hard) and at the beginning of this month was close to getting his first title for 2009 but lost to Monfils in Metz (indoors hard). He is very solid baseliner with a lot of top spin in his ground strokes. His style is equally effective on slow and fast surfaces since he has fast legs and solid retrieving abilities. Nicolas Almagro of Spain is a typical clay courter like most of his compatriots. He spends over 70% of his playing time on the dirt where his success comes – five career titles. On anything else than clay the Spaniard is able to compete as he possesses powerful serve but only against lower ranked opponents. He has very few victories on hard courts over top 50 ranked opponents and none against top 20. Despite winning the title in Acapulco earlier in 2009 Almagro’s form has been poorer compared to last year but 2008 was indeed his best career performance losing only eight matches on clay. Everything points to easy victory for Kohlschreiber who is deservedly a big favorite against Almagro on the fast surface at Shanghai.

Davydenko v Kunitsyn – These two met last week and despite losing a set Davydenko was a comfortable winner of the match. Both are pretty aggressive players with a tendency to go for too much at times. Davydenko is the more controlled one and he takes the ball earlier. He has good angles on the ground and that makes him very dangerous and fast shot maker. His form is very good this season and he has made up for missing most of the first half due to injuries. Kunitsyn is the more risky and powerful player. He goes for winners too often and that makes him dangerous on a good day and a loser on a bad day. He beat Andreev in the first round and he was the better player for most of the time in that match. He has more power on court and he is the more attacking player, but his advantages end here. Davydenko is the faster and better player overall. He is in better form and he knows how to handle Kunitsyn. Davydenko has the skills to make his opponent run and not to give him free balls to attack. He is the more variable and capable player and therefore Kunitsyn needs to be on a really good day to win this one.

Bellucci v Gonzalez – Bellucci had a good serving day against Chiudinelli and managed a fine victory on a surface he does not like a lot. The Brazilian is a clay courter with powerful leftie serve and powerful top spin forehand. He relies on the serve on faster grounds as he does not have the time to execute his ground strokes as good as he would like. He beat Zhang and Yani in qualifying without getting broken and he served 11 aces against Chiudinelli. Gonzalez faced Zverev in his opener and he looked in control in the first set, but could not close the match and his opponent forced a decider. The Chilean looked frustrated and impatient, but Zverev managed to fall on his wrist and retired to give Gonzo the passage into the second round. The Chilean is a powerful player with huge forehand and big serve. he has concentrated on playing fewer events this season and he relies on quality of his performance instead of quantity. Both will look to attack with power and unleash the forehands and both will meet the weaker side of their opponent with their forehand. Bellucci is used to the surface as he played three matches here already while Gonzalez sent a couple of balls out of the stadium with misjudged shots against Zverev. The Chilean is better used to playing on faster grounds and he has more power on the ground. He matches his opponent on serve and he leads him in experience so he is a deserved favourite for the victory, but after seeing him blow his nerves and throw the towel in the second set against Zverev we do not trust him to win this one on such odds.

Stepanek v Beck – Stepanek was very solid against Ferrero and gave his opponent no chance. The Czech played his usual attacking game with accurate flat shots which troubled the Spaniard a lot. He is a powerful server with good volleys and bet rushing style. His form is not great as he lost to Gulbis last week, but he started too well to be opposed here. Beck is a leftie with powerful serve and good forehand. He is used to playing on all courts and has the game to stay competitive on all. His form has been pretty good this season, but he did better on clay. He played Acasuso in the first round and his opponent retired after the first set with knee injury. The German has the needed power to match Stepanek and he has the serve to stay solid in his own serving games. However, he has never faced Stepanek and he will be troubled by his style. Stepanek is an unorthodox player with extremely flat shots which are dangerous on the fast surface and he looked impressive against Ferrero so he is a deserved favourite for the victory over an opponent who will be troubled by his style and pressing ground game.

Wawrinka v Roddick – Wawrinka looked very shaky on court and was on the verge of losing to Kubot. The Pole led 5-1 in the second set tie-break and he then had three break points in the decider, but failed to take them and lost without getting broken. Wawrinka played badly and he was afraid to go for his shots for most of the time. His backhand is his best shot and it saved him on numerous times as well as his serve which gave him 12 aces and 70% of the points won. Roddick also looked shaky last week and he lost to Kubot in the first round of Beijing. His serve looked predictable and shaky in that match. He had the time to rest and get used to the surface in Shanghai after that. Both are powerful servers with powerful ground game. Wawrinka has the better backhand, but his form has not been very good this season and he has done better on the slower surfaces. Roddick has the power and the solid game to win this match especially after Wawrinka played badly and stayed for over 3 hours on court yesterday. However, we are not keen on backing him as he still needs his first victory after the US Open and will skip this match for betting.

Troicki v Monaco – Troicki look in good form now after overcoming foot injuries. He reached the final in Bangkok, then lost to Djokovic in Beijing and got the needed rest before the Masters. The Serbian is a powerful server with big forehand and attacking ground game. He will like and use the courts well as they offer good pace to powerful hitters. Monaco retired with hip injury last week and we are about to see whether it was a precaution or a real injury. He had the injury before the event and had to rest, but chose to play and get some hard court practice and he retired after getting far behind in the match and there was no use in playing. The Argentinean is a good clay courter, but he lacks match practice on faster surfaces. He has the powerful serve to be good on all surfaces, but his movement and shot making is not used to the fast grounds. Troicki has the better skills and the better form at the moment while Monaco is still to play a whole match on hard courts. He played doubles yesterday and he looked fit so he should be able to start the match. Anyway, he is the outsider in this encounter and quite deservedly so as his opponents has all the winning cards in his hand.

Berdych v Cilic – Cilic played the final in Beijing on Sunday and now he has to play on Tuesday in Shanghai. The courts should be faster here (a lot of aces and not many breaks made on day one) and the roof might be closed if it rains again. So conditions will be different and Cilic is not known as the best player physically so he will have to cope with fatigue. Apart from that his form is fine and he took out Davydenko and Nadal last week. The surface in Beijing was slow and bouncy and it helped his shot making while in Shanghai he will play on fast and low bouncing grounds which will make things hard for him as he is tall and slow mover on court. Berdych on the other hand played in Tokyo where things were closer to Shanghai as a surface and even as weather. The Czech beat Beck and Soeda before losing to in-form Youzhny. He is also a powerful player with big serve and forehand. We are in for an attacking match with a lot of big serving and winners. Berdych has two big advantages – he should be fresher and better used to the conditions and he holds the mental edge as he beat Cilic a month ago in the Davis Cup semifinal in Croatia. The Czech is a confidence player who feeds off such good memories and records so we are giving him a good chance to win here and will back him on odds above 2.40.

Haas v Becker – Haas took some time out of tennis after the US Open and he makes his debut in Asia now which might prove a bit tricky. He has not played competitive tennis for over a month and despite training at Bollettieri’s he will still need some time to get back on track. He has the perfect opponent though as Becker has been in terrible form recently. He lost his last six matches on fast surfaces and his season is bad so far. He had some good matches on the Challenger level, but he is 4-9 on hard on the main tour. He has a good serve and solid all court game, but his performance has been far from solid recently and his confidence is very low. Haas on the other hand looked in good form before his break. He is a big server with powerful flat ground strokes. He has the skills to hit hard and make winners off both wings and he enjoys fast conditions. The two are playing doubles together so they should know each other well enough. Haas obviously is the favourite against an opponent out of form, but it still remains to be seen how he will handle the conditions in his first competitive singles match so despite seeing him as a big favourite we will not back him in this match.

Blake v Karlovic - James Blake had a very strong performance against Rafael Nadal last week at Beijing but still lost. He posted some beautiful powerful winning shots and played his typical ultra-aggressive tennis. Nadal very much helped the American playing in his comfort zone with fairly slow and high balls. Blake is having a below-par season by his own standards and will attempt to notch up some victories before season end. He struggled with his return all year long and missed many opportunities. Ivo Karlovic was disrupted by the Davis Cup match against Stepanek on clay and could not make the transition to the faster court in Beijing. He lost to Kohlschreiber who produced some excellent defensive plan and did not allow the big Croat to unleash his strong weapons. Karlovic is 4-6 since Wimbledon quarter-final and 22-20 since beginning of 2009. He leads Blake 4-2 (1-1 in 2009 with games on clay) and definitely likes to play against aggressive players who go for their shots. Karlovic struggles more against grinding types that wait for him to make mistakes. Blake will be troubled by low slice balls on Karlovic backhand. Odds above 2.0 present good value and we will place medium bets.

Chiudinelli v Bellucci – Marco Chiudinelli of Switzerland passed qualifications successfully after dispatching local hope Yang 6-3 6-2. He improved his ranking to No. 100 in the world and reached the main draw for a fourth consecutive tournament. The Swiss player is a good baseliner with powerful serve and solid ground game. He plays rather aggressive tennis, but he is not of an ultra attacking type. His career has been full of injuries, but he is on a good run at the moment and he has huge experience on fast surfaces having spent 90% of his playing time on hard courts or faster courts. Thomaz Bellucci also passed qualifications beating another Chinese Ze Zhang 6-2 6-1. The Brazilian spends the majority of his matches on clay courts similar to most Latin American players (70% of his total matches), but he certainly knows how to compete on hard courts. He reached the second round of US Open as a qualifier and here the surface is very similar to that at Flushing Meadows. Bellucci is a leftie with powerful and tricky serve, but his game relies on the big forehand and he needs more time to set it up. Chiudinelli is in better form and his attacking ground game sets him up perfectly to the fast conditions.

Llodra v Robredo – Michael Llodra is a left hander with flat shots and a lot of power on the ground. He is decent doubles specialist and executes clean serve & volley style. He enjoys playing indoors and is a runner-up in Marseille (l. Tsonga). But it was his only flashback for 18 months, so he slipped eventually in the rankings to No. 136 in the world as he was unable to defend his points in most tournaments. His form after Wimbledon has been poor with only one victory in three main draw matches. Tommy Robredo did not look rusty after US Open and played fairly solid in Beijing. He demolished Becker giving away only three games but then was out-powered by the mighty Soderling. The Spaniard did play well by his own standards, running after every ball showing plenty of defensive skills but when he needed to step up into the court and make the final shot, he lacked power. Robredo enjoys a target at the net and should feel comfortable playing against Llodra who lacks the confidence to play his best tennis. Robredo always gives back an extra shot to his opponents and has much better chances to progress.

Mayer F v Petzschner – Florian Mayer is on the way up in the rankings after various injurie spells. He is a tall man with powerful serve and good ground game. He plays well enough on all surfaces, but has most experience on hard and clay (although it is on the Challenger level). He passed qualification giving away only two games against Wu and already adjusted to the courts well. Phillipp Petzschner improved his rankings to No. 36 since the same time last year (winner in Vienna at indoors hard) but found it very difficult to compete at the highest possible level against the best players. His best performance in any tournament this year has been the third round, which eventually led to 15-22 record. The German is powerful server with strong forehand and defensive backhand that gives him time to get himself into better position. He is on a three-match losing streak and lost both his matches in Asia so far. Our choice here is Florian Mayer simply because of the tempting odds – anything above 2.50 is worth the money. There is little that goes between these two since both rely on backhand slice, solid forehand and strong serve. Small bets as Mayer lacks mental strength to compete against high ranked players.

Kubot v Wawrinka – Lukasz Kubot passed qualifications and entered the main draw in Shanghai. He didn’t play his best tennis last week at Beijing but had the luck to meet opponents who produced poor displays and basically gifted him the victories. It might sound a bit disrespectful to his abilities having in mind it was his first career victory over top 10 player (Andy Roddick). Kubot is a doubles specialist ranked No. 15 in doubles ranking and no. 143 in singles. It is by far his best singles season with a final in Belgrade (clay) and quarter-final in Stuttgart (clay). Stanislas Wawrinka made a strong effort in Tokyo last week to reach the quarter-finals. The Swiss played his usual solid baseline game with good angles and consistent attacking approach. He also possesses excellent retrieving skills. Those three matches would very positive effect on his self-belief as he was in bad form the week before. Kubot possesses the game to get the Swiss out of his comfort zone but Wawrinka prepared well for Shanghai on pretty similar conditions and should enjoy the courts in China. The odds are correctly priced and we don’t intend to waste money here. 

Gasquet v Ferrer – Richard Gasquet of France was unlucky last week when he was leading with a set and a break in the second against his compatriot Jo-Wilfried Tsonga but was unable to hold his advantage and lost. The Frenchman served a doping ban and now is back on track going 6-4 with a semi-final in Metz. He seemed to have not lost his ability to play top tennis but there is a slight setback in his mental composure. As an owner of one of the best attacking one-handed backhand Gasquet is an all-court type of player enjoying competitive tennis on any kind of surface. David Ferrer is a fast defensive player with powerful ground strokes and great retrieving skills. The Spaniard is not in great form as he lost to Acasuso at US Open and he tends to get overpowered by his opponents recently failing to switch on his good defensive skills which has its natural explanation – he struggles from knee tendonitis and it restricts his movement on the court. His game is based on great running and court coverage and requires top fitness level. He leads Gasquet 4-1 but he might struggle against a consistent player like the Frenchman. But we are not confident to back Gasquet at those odds as he tends to make a lot of mistakes.

Fognini v Gulbis – Fabio Fognini is small counter punching player with fast legs who has big experience playing on clay courts but insignificant on faster surfaces. He still uses his grinding weapons very well and it works against opponents who are unable to hit through him and kill themselves in numerous unforced errors. Such player was his qualification opponent Bastl who did not have a tactical plan to out-play the Italian from the baseline and eventually lost. Fognini is 1-5 on hard courts this season and 8-14 lifetime. Ernests Gulbis keeps on his Asian lovely affair. The Latvian is a powerful server with aggressive baseline approach close to ultra-aggressive on the edge of the risk. His recent coach change had extremely positive effect on his attitude and he is back to his best days able to show his big talent. For a second consecutive time in two week he was prevented to enter deeper into the draw by a similar player to him, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. But both matches were very competitive and Gulbis missed golden opportunities to come out victorious. Fognini is nowhere near to challenge a powerful hitter in form on such a fast surface and we predict the Latvian will enter the second round. But despite Gulbis having a lot better chances, it is still too early to trust him big time.

Zverev v Gonzalez – Mischa Zverev is famous as an offensive player not afraid to come at the net and finish points early, but his form is terrible and his lack of confidence forces him to stay unusually passive and it does not get any better. Since the start of US hard court season Zverev is 1-7 with his only victory coming against Leonardo Mayer at Bangkok first round. The German is a left-hander with strong serve but it looks impossible to think that he is able to save already disappointing season. Fernando Gonzalez was a surprise second round victim to Marat Safin last week in Beijing where he enjoys playing. The Chilean is very experienced competitor rarely posts two consecutive defeats. Shanghai Masters and the absence of top two players present excellent chance for him to go deeper into the draw and challenge the title. Gonzalez is powerful baseliner with huge forehand and one-handed backhand with a lot of slice. Zverev will try to open the court by his left-handed cross court forehand going to the weaker Gonzalez backhand, but the Chilean will hardly see any trouble playing against inconsistent type like the German. Gonzo will have chances to run around his backhand and set up his inside out killing forehand.

Stepanek v Ferrero – Radek Stepanek will make his second Asian attempt against Juan Carlos Ferrero. He failed at the first after losing to Ernests Gulbis last week in Tokyo 4-6 4-6. The Czech enjoys playing on hard courts although he prefers indoors instead. His style is a beauty to watch for all those who have the eyes to see his wise point build-up. He can play from the baseline although not very consistently but he can also mix up his shots – slice or flat; baseline or approaching the net. Stepanek has his eyes set on the upcoming Davis Cup final in Barcelona against Spain in December. He is an important part of the Czech team and from now on it is all about his best preparation for this event. Juan Carlos Ferrero is famous as a grand slam winner at the French Open and eventually people imagine he is a clay court specialist. But the Spaniard is one of the few players from his country ho possess the necessary skills to compete at fast surfaces as well. Ferrero is a solid baseliner with good defence and the ability to turn it into attack fast. He has good angles in his shots and goes for the winning shot whenever he an opportunity arises. Ferrero improved his rankings a lot and now is No. 20 in the world and with 35-17 W-L record in 2009 is tough to be beaten by anyone. Only very consistent and powerful players were able to defeat him this season. Both players had successful 2009 campaigns by their standards and have pretty equal stats. It is hard to separate any of them, so the outcome will be decided by the one who manages to take his chances and win the important points. Stepanek has more variety in his shots while Ferrero has baseline consistency. We will skip betting here.

Gong v Safin – Mao_Xin Gong is one of the several tennis players from the new Chinese generation that desperately try to enter the big stage. At the age of 22 Gong has limited experience but recorded his first Davis Cup victory against Wachiramanowong of Thailand. Just like his compatriots Gong has a grinding style with fairly good power. He moves fast on the hard courts where he has practiced a lot as youngster and knows how to play. What he lacks is tactical plan and powerful baseline approach. Now that the end is very close Marat Safin seems very relaxed and focused. He beat two very strong opponents in Fernando Gonzalez and Acasuso last week in Beijing but failed to stay competitive and lost to Rafa Nadal at the quarter-final. His serve is working very good which means he will win plenty of easy short points. In this way the Russian will be able to save his energy and determination for the rest of the points. It is no surprise to see him a huge favorite against Gong who even does not have a singles ranking yet. The power that Safin accumulates in his shots is something Gong is not used to and certainly will find it very difficult to contradict. Safin should prevail comfortably and progress into the next round.

Vassallo v Schuettler - The German passed qualification by beating Eitzinger and Norman wihtout problem. He is a defensive counter puncher, but he likes fast surfaces and does well on them in general. However, his form is pretty bad nowadays and he is on a four-match losing streak in the main draw on tour. Vassallo is a clay courter with very solid serve and good defensive skills. He plays almost all his tennis on clay, but has risked playing his last five events on hard courts. He even beat a very shaky Lopez in Malaysia, but that victory was due to his opponent's bad performance. Both players love to stand back in defence and we should witness a lot of long rallies. However, Schuettler has much more experience on the level and he knows the courts well as he comes from qualifying. Vassallo is pretty unpredictable with his high percentage serves, but he needs a shaky and attacking opponent to be able to win on hard courts and Schuettler is not such a player so we do not fancy the South American as a likely winner.

Shanghai Masters is a new event this season. It replaced Madrid Masters while the Masters Cup was moved to London. Last year in Shanghai the event was played indoors on a medium/fast Greenset hard court where the ball bounces high. But now it will offer completely different outlook. Shanghai Masters will be held in Shanghai Qi Zhong Tennis Center at outdoor conditions on the fast Decoturf II surface. The conditions will be closer to Tokyo than Beijing and will favor big and consistent serving types. Much for the fans discontent world top two ranked players will miss the Shanghai Masters for different reasons. Federer claimed fatigue while Murray was forced to withdraw due to wrist injury. Del Potro, Nadal and Djokovic will lead a strong field of players.

Acasuso v Beck – Jose Acasuso recovered from his knee troubles and is physically good but lacks much practice. He used to have a lot of spells in his career when he struggled to get into rhythm after injuries and now it is no exclusion. The Argentinean is otherwise a powerful server with good forehand and attacking ground game. He goes for his shots but misses a lot at the moment. Last week was outplayed by retiring Safin and could not maintain a solid baseline level. Andreas Beck is a powerful left-hander with decent baseline ground strokes. It will be his 66 match for the year; actually he was pretty busy this season and for the first time in his short career played 39 main draw matches in one competitive season. He is tall and powerful which is the reason for his bad movement on court. That is one of the reasons for him to prefer slower surfaces where he has enough time to unleash his big shots. He reached the final in Gstaad (clay) and the quarter-final at Monte Carlo (clay). Both players lack consistency but Acasuso lacks confidence which might be crucial for the final outcome, but his game style is more suited to the fast courts. Beck should be a small favorite we don’t plan betting here as it seems to be too early and there is insufficient amount of bookies that posted odds for Sunday matches.

Zeng v Sela – Shao-Zuan Zeng is ranked 396 in the world and at the age of 28 is still in search for his first main draw victory apart from Davis Cup. The Chinese is a journeyman that spends the majority of his playing time in Asia as the traveling costs are lower. Most of the time he was fighting hard to qualify for Challenger events but with apparently no success. Dudi Sela of Israel had a groin strain before the US Open and he overcame it, but he is on a seven-match losing streak which includes the Davis Cup loss to Ferrero. The Israeli is a fast moving baseliner with good retrieving skills. His experience on hard courts is huge and Decoturf is his favourite surface. However, he lacks match practice recently and therefore he might find it hard to get used to the very fast conditions the Shanghai courts present. But playing against so limited opponent presents a great chance for him the notch up his first victory and break the negative trend. His confidence is ruined and it is a matter his Sela approaches the match. Zeng is poor but the crowd will be behind him and his motivation high. Such matches are extremely difficult to compile odds for. Generally the 44-ranked Sela is big favorite against 396-ranked and should be able to prevail.

Lopez v Garcia-Lopez – Feliciano Lopez counts on big serve and attacking net rushing game. He is a leftie with good powerful forehand and weaker backhand and he has no patience and skills to stay in long rallies consistently. After Wimbledon Lopez won the Challenger in Segovia, Spain on hard and made a perfect preparation for the upcoming US hard court season but went on six consecutive defeats. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez is a good all-court player with solid serve and consistent ground game. He has good angles in his shots and plays well on all surfaces. He won the title in Kitzbuhel this season on clay and reached the semi-finals in Eastbourne on grass. His physical condition is a big concern. Last week he pulled out injured against Monaco at 0-5 in the first set. If 100% fit, Garcia-Lopez should be a big favorite against his compatriot because he knows best his opponent’s weak sides. But it is questionable if he can endure a tight and competitive match for more than an hour. Feliciano Lopez has a lot power in his game especially on his serve and with frequent approaching the net will make Garcia-Lopez to run but the problem is his recent poor execution of that otherwise useful style. Betting on this match represents high risk as it depends on Garcia-Lopez physical condition and we will skip placing any bets here.

Kunitsyn v Andreev – Igor Andreev was busy this season 27-27 and fatigue seems to tell its story. After reaching the semi-final in New Haven on hard he went on a four-match losing streak. Fast surface in Shanghai will probably be no help for a player who triggers a lot of top spin in his baseline shots. He plays solid baseline game but needs more time in his shot preparation process and the fast grounds give him little time. Still he is able to compete on his day with anyone on hard courts with decent serve and deep shots. Igor Kunitsyn is not also in great shape himself. He is a grinding type of player who lacks enough attacking powerful weapons to make many winning shots but in general is better suited on these conditions. However, his form is terrible this season – 12-27 and there is little light in the tunnel. One of those 12 victories came against Andreev in Memphis at indoors hard. So the match-up presents a good chance to break the negative tren