The Overrule: ATP Los Angeles, Gstaad, Umag & WTA Stanford

By Sports Magician

ATP LOS ANGELES

Los Angeles organisers were grateful to Andy Murray for accepting a late wildcard after the withdrawal of Novak Djokovic. Murray plays his first tournament since Wimbledon as he approaches his favourite part of the season, culminating with the US Open at the end of August. The Scot could face some stiff tests from Ernests Gulbis and Mardy Fish in his half of the draw, and for that reason the 2.25 on offer for Murray to win the title doesn’t appeal.

Marcos Baghdatis is overpriced in the bottom half of the draw which features the defending champion - Sam Querrey. They could meet in a potential semi-final and both have a first round bye. Baghdatis has lost his last four matches on tour, but has a tendency to produce a run of results out of nowhere.

PICK: 1* MARCOS BAGHDATIS WIN LOS ANGELES @ 21.00 (BWIN)


ATP GSTAAD

This week sees the last of clay court tournaments for the season with the past four winners of Gstaad all in the draw for this year’s event. Thomaz Bellucci, Victor Hanescu, Paul-Henri Mathieu and Richard Gasquet are all hoping to win the Swiss event for the second time but top seed Mikhail Youzhny can end their hopes of doing so. Youzhny has had a consistent year and won a clay court tournament earlier in the season in Munich. The Russian is nearly always a tough player to beat who rarely loses to players inferior to himself. The Spanish contingent is once again prevalent in the draw and Youzhny may well face Spaniards from the last eight onwards if he wants to claim the title.

PICK: 2*MIKHAIL YOUZHNY WIN GSTAAD @ 7.00 (PADDY POWER)


ATP UMAG

Nikolay Davydenko has been struggling for form since returning to the tour and now he has the perfect chance to gain some confidence. The Umag draw is particularly weak, especially given the likelihood that Juan Carlos Ferrero may yet have to pull out of the event after picking up an injury in Hamburg. Davydenko won the title in Umga last year and he has a great opportunity to defend in 2010.

In first round action Fabio Fognini can overcome Bjorn Phau - who has only won 5 tour matches in 2010. Phau doesn’t have the firepower to hit through the Italian who will be quite happy to grind his way to an ugly win.

PICK: 4*NIKOLAY DAVYDENKO WIN UMAG @ 3.55 (BETFAIR)

PICK: 3*FABIO FOGNINI BEAT BJORN PHAU @ 1.67 (PADDY POWER / WILLIAM HILL)


WTA STANFORD

The tournament I am most intrigued by this week is the women’s event in Stanford. A very interesting draw awaits us which features a number of players who will expect to reach the second week of the US Open. Sam Stosur is a remarkably short favourite for a player who has only ever won two career singles titles. Victoria Azarenka is a player the Overrule has highly touted ever since these series of articles began and the next couple of months provide Vika with a chance to get her season well and truly back on track. The courts will really suit Azarenka and if she serves well she will be very tough to beat.

Maria Sharapova is priced up bigger to win Stanford than she is with some bookies to win the US Open! A testing quarter of the draw may well be the reason for that, but we are still very keen to back Masha at such a price. The draw has not been kind for wildcard beneficiary Ana Ivanovic. The former world number one has been completely owned by Alisa Kleybanova this season and there is no reason why that won’t continue. The Russian hammered the Serbian in Fed Cup action in Serbia, and handed her an even more comprehensive beating at Roland Garros.

18 year old Melanie Oudin came to the fore at last year’s US Open and she is considered the only bright hope for American women’s tennis outside of the now veteran Williams sisters. Oudin faces Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak in first round action with the winner likely to face Azarenka in the second round. Oudin beat Wozniak on clay last year when the American was ranked almost 150 places below her opponent, now Oudin is the higher ranked player and should advance to the second round.

PICK: 3*(EACH-WAY) VICTORIA AZARENKA WIN STANFORD (1/2 ODDS 1-2 PLACES) @ 7.00 (VCBET)

PICK: 3*(EACH-WAY) MARIA SHARAPOVA WIN STANFORD (1/2 ODDS 1-2 PLACES) @ 7.50 (BET 365)

PICK: 4*ALISA KLEYBANOVA BEAT ANA IVANOVIC @ 1.62 (VCBET)

PICK: 3*MELANIE OUDIN BEAT ALEKSANDRA WOZNIAK @ 1.73 (VCBET)

Sports Magician