29 May 2009

French Open Daily Tips: Short-priced Murray one to take on

It's set to be an exciting day at Roland Garro, with an array of top names on display. Ben Caudell believes he has good reason to oppose a couple of these stars.

Marion Bartoli's straight sets loss to 31-year-old Tathiana Garbin was the only notable Roland Garros upset yesterday, though Roger Federer came close to defeat in his match against Argentinean clay court specialist Jose Acasuso.

Fortunately for the number two seed it was Acasuso who crumbled to hand the Swiss star a safe passage into the third round. He will now play Paul-Henri Mathieu, and things should be easier, the Fed has a 3-0 head-to-head over the 32nd seed.

Today's Selections:

Venus Williams (USA) v Agnes Szavay (HUN)
Venus has not been past the third round of the French Open since 2006, the furthest the American has reached at Roland Garros has been the quarter-finals (06, 04, 00). Clearly then, the French Open isn't one of her favourite tournaments and clay is definitely not one of her favoured surfaces.

Szavay has had a relatively easy passage through to the third round managing to drop only nine games in total. The last time these two met was back in February this year at the Acapulco Open in which Venus triumphed 6-2 5-7 6-1. Szavay has a habit of playing three set matches, from her last 16 WTA Tour results she has gone to three sets on nine occasions and has won seven of these. I believe that Szavay has the ability to win this match today, however, the bet has to be to lay Venus 2-0.
Selection: Lay Venus Williams 2-0 at [1.94]


Andy Murray (GBR) v Janko Tipsarevic (SRB)
First things first, Murray's price of [1.18] to back is way too short. Although he played some of his better clay court tennis at the end of the match against Potito Starace two days ago, he still struggled to dominate from the back of the court.

Tipsarevic in my opinion will be a lot tougher to break down than Starace was - he is far stronger mentally and loves the underdog status. The Serbian has a 4-6 record against top ten players (2-2 in head-to-heads versus Murray) and is showing some decent form coming into this match. I would expect this match to be a close encounter, like the rest of their head-to-heads with the value definitely resting on the Serbian's shoulders.
Selection: Back Over 35.5 Games @ [2.04]; Lay Three Sets @ [1.94]

In Other News