Pilot Pen Tennis

I only have one fancy in this draw, and that is young Argentine Juan Martin del Potro.

The 19 year old has enjoyed a spectacular few weeks, with his maiden ATP title win coming against Richard Gasquet in the Mercedes Cup in Hamburg, on clay. Since then, del Potro has remarkably increased his tally of ATP titles to four, winning all of them consecutively.

He is now unbeaten in 19 matches, and although this tournament features his toughest hard court draw in the past month, he has no reason to fear the rest of the field. No 1 seed Fernando Verdasco will provide del Potro's toughest competition, but with the likes of Verdasco, Juan Monaco and Igor Andreev all preferring clay, the in-form del Potro should enjoy facing clay court specialists on his favourite Deco-Turf II surface.

In del Potro's half of the draw, only Mardy Fish and Verdasco have the potential to pose serious questions, although it should be noted that del Potro disposed of Fish with consummate ease on his way to winning the Countrywide Classic in Los Angeles two weeks ago.

In the other half of the draw, Marin Cilic, Igor Andreev and Ivo Karlovic are all quality players, but I would back del Potro to beat any of them on current form. Karlovic is possibly the main threat to del Potro, but having destroyed big-serving Andy Roddick in the final of the Countrywide Classic, it is quite clear that he reads strong serves very well indeed.

SkyBet offer a stand-out price of 6.0 on del Potro outright, which is surely far too big given his excellent form and a field full of inconsistent, if talented players.

NJ's Bet:

Back Juan Martin del Potro to win the Pilot Pen Tennis - 3.5pts @ 6.0 (E/W, 1, 2, 1/2) (SkyBet)