Tennis - 4-10 July

[Atko]

There's always a bit of a natural comedown when Wimbledon finishes, mainly because a lot of the top players hibernate for a month or two. Even still, the Tour goes on, and there are plenty of betting opportunities to be had. The women are in action in two events this week, on the clay in Bastad (international event) and on the clay of Budapest (also an international event). Bastad's got quite a good line-up, headed by Caroline Wozniacki. Finding out who's in Budapest is nigh on impossible - their website is brutal. I'd expect Agnes Szavay to be defending her crown and a plethora of eastern Europeans to be in attendance. The quirky event at Newport (250 series) is our only main offering for the men, which is played on grass. John Isner heads up a better field than normal for this event, although it lacks strength in depth. Plenty of Challenger events, however, in Pozoblanco (hard), Oberhausen (clay), Schveningen (clay) and San Benedetto (clay). Perhaps the best event takes place at the weekend: the Davis Cup quarter finals. The matches are as follows: - Sweden v Serbia (to be played on an indoor hard court in Halmstad) - Argentina v Kazakhstan (to be played on clay in Buenos Aires) - USA v Spain (to be played on an indoor hard court in Austin) - Germany v France (to be played on clay in Stuttgart) Good luck for the week ahead :ok

[Dylan]

Would agree that the field at Newport is certainly much better than in previous years. Isner is the no 1 seed and favourite but I can't see him winning this despite the fact that I feel the top half of the draw is slightly easier than the bottom. Looking at the out-rights I like the look of both Kunitsyn and Karol Beck in the top half (current available at 23.00 and 34.0) and in the bottom half Rochus, Sela and 2nd seed Dimitrov are all strong contenders. Will wait for the first round results and reviews before committing to anything. The each way odds on Kunitsyn and Beck are very interesting to me at the moment though, assuming Beck can get past Isner tomorrow which I feel is possible. As for the first round matches just a couple of small bets from me; Berrer vs Haas - Total sets = 3. 2.20 at William Hill Its great to see Tommy Haas coming back to high level tennis. In his heyday when fit he was very good on the grass. Berrer is not the best on grass but he may have better fitness levels and I see a very even match up here. Will also be going with a double of Bogomolov Jnr and Ryan Harrison both to win 2.8 at Boyle Sports Harrison had a strong Wimbledon, getting through the qualifiers and then beating Dogdig and taking David Ferrer to 5 sets in the second round. I think Harrison has been very much on the rise over the last year or so and will be hoping to show the home fans what he can do. Clement is going on a completely different trajectory to his opponent and I don't feel he will be able to keep up with Harrison here. Zverev had a decent run at Halle in 2010 but since then has done very little on grass. Bogomolov on the other had has been more consistant and has progressed through a couple of rounds at his last couple of grass tournaments, beating the likes of Chardy and Chela. :hope Look forward to hearing other peoples opinions.