October 10 - October 16

[CzechPunter]

[CzechPunter]

Plenty of matches have caught my eye, perhaps way too many really.

Back Kurumi Nara to beat Monica Puig at 3.00 with Skybet

Nara is the underdog, there can be no doubts about that. That said, she's priced at 3.00 and I can't ignore those odds given that there are plenty of things speaking against Puig. Not only has she been in a bit of mess since the Olympics, but she also has a 0-2 record against Nara, so there might be some match-up problems as well (it's not even that hard to see why, as Nara can defend really well and draw unforced errors from Puig), so yeah, let's give Nara a go here I say.

Back Yulia Putintseva (-3.5) to beat Yafan Wang at 1.73 with Paddy Power

Wang has recorded some good results recently, but I don't see her troubling Putintseva too much if the world's number 33 plays reasonably well. Still a big gap between the two in terms of quality and Putintseva should also see Tianjin Open as a great opportunity for a really good run, so I expect her to be fully focused.

Back Mikhail Youzhny to beat Nicolas Almagro at 1.53 with Bet365

Somehow, it's very hard for me to believe that Almagro will have a chance for this one. Firstly, he's yet to beat Youzhny, with the record standing at 0-5 (and that's over more than just a couple of years). Secondly, he hasn't really done anything since the US Open, while Youzhny seems to have focused on the qualifiers for Shanghai. I reckon that the Spaniard will give it a go, but I'm happy to take the Russian at 1.53.

Back Pablo Carreno-Busta to beat Gilles Simon at 1.95 with BetVictor

Carreno-Busta has been on the rise since the start of the season, while Simon has been in decline all year long (well, there was the excellent match he played against Djokovic in the Aussie Open, but that's about it really), so I'll be taking the Spaniard here. He also had a great run in Beijing last week, beating Tomic and Gasquet before losing against Raonic.

Back Brian Baker to beat Mackenzie McDonald at 1.83 with Bet365

Fancy experience over youth here, despite McDonald's good runs in recent times. He hasn't had a great deal of rest and Baker might also be able to just outfox him with patient play and good point-building, so I'll take my chances with the talented veteran that hasn't shined only because of injuries.

Back Amir Weintraub to beat Federico Gaio at 1.80 with Betfred

Weintraub might have some small fatigue issues to deal with, but he's an actual hard court player with decent form, while Gaio is more or less a clay court specialist that has no form whatsoever. 1.57 for Weintraub would be reasonable, 1.80 is too much.

Back Henri Laaksonen to beat Mitchell Krueger at 1.80 with Betfred

On US ground, I'd fancy Krueger, but this is going to take place in Asia and Laaksonen has more experience with that, while Krueger has spent the last few months playing exclusively in the States, so there might be plenty of off-court issues as well. Laaksonen is probably also the better player of the two in all honesty.