The Overrule: WTA Stuttgart

By Sports Magician

Victoria Azarenka and Yanina Wickmayer made it a successful day for the Overrule yesterday, both winning in straight sets and at odds against. Today we focus on the return of a former world number one and the battle of Belgium. Dinara Safina returns to the tour after being absent with a back injury since the Australian Open. Safina reached the final of Stuttgart last year - losing to Svetlana Kuznetsova - and has been surprisingly priced up in her match with Agnes Szavay. Her recent layoff shouldn’t be cause for her to be made the underdog, despite the fact Szavay won their only meeting on clay two years ago in Charleston.

It’s hard to gauge how well Safina will play on her return but the price certainly represents maximum value since she is fit enough to return to the tour. Ordinarily we would never be able to take advantage of such a price as Safina would be in the region of 1.4 or lower had she played just a couple of tournaments prior. Szavay blows hot and cold, too often cold, and is rarely able to play a consistent match from start to finish. As always we will placing our match bets with bookies who void retirements, in the event that Safina’s back injury flares up again. Providing injury does not befall her once more, I’m confident she can return to the tour with a win at great odds if she can play to 70% of her level. The Overrule was able to take advantage of an overreaction due to Azarenka’s recent injury problems yesterday, and we hope to do the same today.

The Overrule backed Justine Henin to win the tournament and she really came on strong in her match with German Julia Goerges yesterday. Goerges was outstanding for much of the first set but failed to take three set points at 6-5 up, lost the breaker, and was then blow apart by Henin in the second set. Henin was keyed in on second serves and was really hitting the ball well by the end of the match. I expect her performances to improve as the tournament progresses and Wickmayer will be extremely vulnerable on serve having given Francesca Schiavone 11 break opportunities yesterday. If Wickmayer affords Henin the same or similar amount of chances, it could well be a short evening. The Overrule will be backing Henin to see off Wickmayer in straight sets.

PICK: 5*DINARA SAFINA BEAT AGNES SZAVAY @ 2.00 (BOYLESPORTS)

PICK: 4.5*(SET BETTING) JUSTINE HENIN BEAT YANINA WICKMAYER 2-0 @ 2.25 (PADDY POWER)

Sports Magician