Tennis - 1-7 November

[Atko]

ATP 500 events from Basel and Valencia, both indoors on Greenset. There are also four Challenger events: Astana (indoor hard), Charlottesville (outdoor hard), Medellin (clay) and Eckental (indoor carpet). As for WTA, eight women head to Bali for the international tournament championships, starting on November 4. They are Na Li, Aravine Rezai, Yanina Wickmayer, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (try saying that after a few vodkas), Ana Ivanovic, Alisa Kleybanova, Kimiko Date Krumm and Daniela Hantuchova. I don't really understand why they are there, but you'll be able to bet on it, so it's game on. All the best for the week :ok

[Atko]

Re: Tennis - 1-7 November I'm putting down a few early bets. I don't know when these will all be played but I see enough in them to fire the trigger now. - Gilles Simon -4 games AH (vs Sergiy Stakhovsky) @ 1.909 with Pinnacle (5/10) Simon's got a few ranking points to defend from last year in Valencia and I feel he's been given a fairly straightforward tie here against Stakhovksy. They have never met before but I reckon this could be a bad match-up for the Ukrainian. Simon is an intelligent returner of the ball, so I can see him getting plenty of Stakhovsky's serves back, and he's also what I call a pusher, a player who scraps and rallies and forces opponents into errors. Stakhovsky is on a horrible run of form at present. His only wins since the US Open have come against Michael Russell, and on both occasions, he was lucky to win those. He's not playing good tennis and if he couldn't rediscover his form in St Petersburg, where he was defending his title, I can't see him doing so here. If Simon gets infront, I can see Stakhovsky's head going down and it would be plain sailing for Simon there on. The Frenchman got a couple of good wins in Montpellier, including one over David Nalbandian, and I expect him to take out Stakhovsky in his present form. - David Ferrer -3.5 games AH (vs Guillermo Garcia-Lopez) @ 1.909 with Pinnacle (5/10) I'm expecting a big week from Ferrer here. He's in pole position for securing a spot in London and he's playing at his home tournament. Indoors may not be his favourite condition but I still reckon a focused, motivated Ferrer is going to be very hard to beat for most in this field. He's the complete warrior, a scrapper with tonnes of heart and ability, and I can see him getting under Garcia-Lopez's skin in this one. Garcia-Lopez had a great time in Asia but I was worried by his match against Michael Berrer in Vienna. It was a poor loss and he served more than ten double faults. If his serve is off, Ferrer will gobble him up. Ferrer leads the H2H 4-1, so there's certainly an advantage for him there. I reckon Garcia-Lopez might be winding down after a good season for him, and with it all to play for in Ferrer's camp in his home town of Valencia, I reckon he can cover a -3.5 game handicap. - Radek Stepanek (vs Thiemo de Bakker) @ 1.847 with Pinnacle (5/10) Stepanek has a lot of points to defend here in Basel and this is a match that is very winnable for him. De Bakker has broken onto the scene this year with some great results, particularly on the clay, but ever since he beat Fernando Verdasco in Shanghai a few weeks back, he's really stuttered. I think it's worth noting that de Bakker's ideal conditions are not quick ones - he prefers being on the clay where he can have time on the ball. Stepanek, by contrast, revels on the quick courts because he can serve and volley effectively. He hasn't been at his best this year - mainly because of injury - but I can envisage him putting up a fight this week. It'll be a close match but de Bakker's recent form indoors (losses to Daniel Brands and Pablo Cuevas) suggest to me that he's not comfortable here. This is Stepanek's to win. - Marco Chiudinelli +4 games AH (vs Marin Cilic) @ 1.943 with Pinnacle (4/10) I don't really know what to make of Cilic right now. I won't go into a denouement of his slump since the Australian Open but he's a right shadow of his best at present. He's lost a couple of very winnable matches and laboured past guys like Jan Hajek indoors - not good form. He's got a real tricky foe in R1 of Basel in Chiudinelli. The Swiss, playing in his hometown, got to the semi-finals here last year, thus having an armoury of points to defend. He likes it here - the courts suit his game - and he'll fight every step of the way against Cilic. By contrast, the Croat isn't fighting at all. He's gone down meekly in a lot of his matches recently and if he does manage to beat the Swiss, I can see it being a close run thing. All things considered, I have to go with Chiudinelli on the plus. - Michael Berrer +3 games AH (vs Viktor Troicki) @ 1.926 with Pinnacle (4/10) This is quite an interesting little match. Berrer's coming back into form with a semi-final berth in Vienna and is back on a quick surface he loves to play on. Troicki crashed out of St Petersburg last week but had just won Moscow, and I'm doubtful whether he really was in the right frame of mind after winning his first Tour title. He's got Davis Cup places to play for so I expect him to be motivated, but Berrer's no easy match for him. The German leads the H2H 3-0 and all the meetings have been indoors, including one this year in Zagreb. It would appear Troicki has troubles when playing the German. He might edge this one as he's in better form, but Berrer could be worth at least a set here and that would make the handicap very coverable. I've got to go with the stats and the form here; Berrer seems a good bet on the plus. :hope