The Overrule: ATP Hamburg

By Sports Magician

Nicolas Almagro won the sixth title of his career in Bastad last weekend and the Spaniard should be favoured to triumph in Germany this week. However, the favourite mantle has gone to last year’s Hamburg winner Nikolay Davydenko, who we identified last week as not yet having had enough match practice to justify such status. Davydenko and Almagro could meet in the last eight, but I’m doubtful that the Russian can get there, and if he does, Almagro will be a step up in class. The event in Hamburg has been weakened by the late withdrawals of Gael Monfils and David Ferrer.

German Philipp Kohlschreiber has a surprisingly poor record in Hamburg going 2-6 since making his debut at the tournament in 2002. Stuttgart winner Albert Montanes takes his place at the top of the bottom half of the draw, but Kohlschreiber’s chances have increased with the absence of Ferrer, whom he may have faced in the last eight. The 35th ranked Swiss resident hasn’t gone beyond the quarter-finals on an event since Auckland at the beginning of the year. His draw contains a couple of tricky early round encounters, but if he can progress to the latter stage of the week he could prove to be a tricky match-up for his prospective opponents towards the business end of the tournament.

PICK: 3*NICOLAS ALMAGRO WIN HAMBURG @ 5.00 (BET 365)

PICK: 1.5*(EACH-WAY) PHILIPP KOHLSCHREIBER WIN HAMBURG (1/2 ODDS 1-2 PLACES) @ 21.00 (BET 365)

Sports Magician