WTA Tour Telecom Italia Masters Roma

[qlpol]

After following the WTA tour closely for some years now, I think I'm confident enough to publish my picks. Personally I find women tennis very attractive as a sport, and it's possible to make decent money with it, due to the low overrounds and the predictability of most games. Surprises are quite rare although the occassional slip-up does happen ofcourse. Still first round games so games can be quite tight... Likhovtseva E - Smashnova-Pistolesi E. (1.6-2.05) Likhovtseva, N18 on the world ranking meets up with Smashnova, N41. Last meeting between the two ended in favour of Likhovtseva in 3 sets, just one month ago. I understand Likhovtseva is made favourite by the bookies here, but I think there is decent value in Smashnova. Likhovtseva is not the most stable player, and went out in the first round in the previous Tier 1 tournaments on clay(Berlin & Charleston) Smashnova didn't to much better, but reached second round in Berlin before falling to Mauresmo. Smashnova's favourite underground is clay so this will be an advantae to Likhovtseva who is more a hard court player. Anyway, details and form will decide the game but Smashnova is a bit undervalued here imo. Pick : Smashnova @ 2.05 or Smashnova to win 2-1 @ 4.5 Chladkova - Vinci (1.57-2.25) Chladkova, N60 meets Vinci from Italy, N93. Personally, I don't know Vinci well, but from what I hear she's mostly into serve and volley, a style that doesn't fit really well on clay. Chladkova prefers clay so this can be a first advantage in favour of the Czech. Chladkova played poorly in Berlin, losing to a qualifier in the first round so she should be motivated to do better. The rest of het clay games so far this season were not bad but not good either. She wasn't able to upset any of her higher ranked opponents yet. Vinci played only one very small clay tournament so far, in Dinan(France). She was able to win it, but only played against players around P100. I'm thinking the switch to playing a much higher ranked opponent will be to much for her. Pick : Chladkova @ 1.57 or Chladkova to win 2-0 @ 2.35

[qlpol]

Re: WTA Tour Telecom Italia Masters Roma Smashnova won 6-1 6-3 ;) Chladkova still pending...