The Overrule: Wednesday May 5th

By Sports Magician

ATP MUNICH

Daniel Brands reached the final of the Tunis Challenger last week but the step up in class against Philipp Kohlschreiber will be very hard for the 22 year old German to bridge. Brands didn't meet anyone inside the top 100 before the final where he lost to Jose Acasuso, who is on the way back from injury. Kohlschreiber has played some fantastic tennis during his career at times, although he has never strung it together consistently to become a top 10 player, rather than top 20-30 where he usually resides. A straight sets win should be the order of the day in this battle of Germany.

PICK: 4*(SET BETTING) PHILIPP KOHLSCHREIBER BEAT DANIEL BRANDS 2-0 @ 1.62 (PADDY POWER)

ATP ESTORIL

Roger Federer begins his Estoril campaign against Bjorn Phau which will give the Swiss world number one a perfect opportunity to ease into the tournament. Few players can hurt Federer and Phau certainly isn’t one of them, although he can claim to have beaten Federer, way back in 1999 when Federer was just 17. A lot has changed since then and Federer is now widely regarded as the greatest player of all time, while Phau is nothing more than a journeyman. Federer is available at -6.5 games on the handicap and a winning score of 6-3, 6-2 is easily achievable in a match where potentially Federer can break at will.

PICK: 3*(MATCH HANDICAP) ROGER FEDERER (-6.5 GAMES) BEAT BJORN PHAU @ 1.91 (PADDY POWER)

WTA ROME

Ana Ivanovic was the beneficiary of a recurrence of the injury that caused Victoria Azarenka to retire in two of her last three tournaments. Azarenka received some criticism from an ignorant few following her retirement in Charleston and made her feelings known on Twitter in response. It was quite clear yesterday that Azarenka carried on playing despite having little or no chance of winning purely to avoid more criticism for another retirement. Azarenka led 4-2 in the first set before pulling up again, and grimaced after every single point thereafter, as well as taking a lengthy time-out for treatment. Even so, Ivanovic was still only able to triumph in two close sets against an opponent who was in distress.

A fully fit Elena Dementieva will make mincemeat of Ivanovic in Rome on Wednesday and improve on her 4-0 head to head with the Serbian beauty. Once again the Overrule is completely sold on opposing Ivanovic and backing Dementieva - whom we have supported in the outright market. Our maximum confidence is placed in a Dementieva win, as well as an additional selection on the Russian to complete the job in straight sets.

PICK: 5*ELENA DEMENTIEVA BEAT ANA IVANOVIC @ 1.50 (BODOG)

PICK: 2.5*(SET BETTING) ELENA DEMENTIEVA BEAT ANA IVANOVIC 2-0 @ 2.2 (PADDY POWER)

Sports Magician