I have 3 plays for tonight:

2010 Season Record: 2-1 (+1.00 units)

I've been looking for sportsbooks which accept American costumers for the WTA plays, but I couldn't find any. Nevertheless, here are the plays:

WTA Auckland - Dominika Cibulkova vs Alexandra Dulgheru

Dominika Cibulkova saw her 2009 season being ruined by an injury during Summer that prevented her from finishing one more season in the Top 20. She is one of the most talented players from the new generation and now back at 100%, I expect her to be back at the Top 20 pretty quickly, like I've written on the future bet about her. She will start the 2010 season in Auckland and she couldn't have asked for an easier opponent for her first match of the season.

Alexandra Dulgheru is surely a pretty dangerous claycourter, having won the WTA tournament of Warsaw last season. But on fast surfaces, she is clearly a very weak player, with no weapons that can make her competitive against any decent fast surfaces specialist. So, it wasn't a surprise to see the Romanian player being absolutely squashed by Viktoria Azarenka in the first round of the US Open by 6-1 6-1, just like it wasn't surprising to see her being ripped apart in the qualifyings of the Summer hardcourt tournaments by players like Anastasia Rodionova (6-0 6-4), Alla Kudryatseva (6-4 6-3) or Kristina Kucova (6-7 6-4 6-1). Her lack of weapons for fast surfaces leaves her completely exposed against any decent opponent and Cibulkova won't have any problems in taking advantage of that.

I expect this match to be a pretty quick one, with Cibulkova using her better movement, baseline accuracy and great well angled shots to easily beat a claycourter, who has absolutely no pedigree on fast surfaces and that will struggle big time in winning more than a pair of games per set, let alone a single set. So, and looking at the current odds, Cibulkova to win this match in straight sets has a lot of value and that's why I'm taking the Slovakian to win this match today without dropping a set.

Pick: 1 unit (Single Dime) on Dominika Cibulkova 2-0


ATP Brisbane - Richard Gasquet vs Jarkko Nieminen
ATP Brisbane - Michael Llodra vs Harel Levy

I expect these two players to win their matches quite comfortably, but still I wasn't 100% sure on taking them on the current spreads and so, I've decided to take them parlayed with each other, as we are getting a lot of value on a parlay between two players who will most likely have easy wins today.

Richard Gasquet currently leads the head to head over Jarkko Nieminen by 3-1 and that's easily explained by the good matchup that Nieminen is for a player like Gasquet. The French player is a pretty complete player and when he is not troubled by powerful opponents, he can easily construct the points and finish them with an array of different solutions. Jarkko Nieminen is a good baseliner, but who struggled during 2009 due to an injury and I don't think he has the game to trouble Gasquet due to his lack of firepower on his shots. The French player will surely be fired up on this early season, as he was finally cleared of a potential doping suspension and so, I expect him to play at a good level and beat in that way a quite nice matchup for him.

On the other match, Michael Llodra is known for starting the seasons quite well and he actually won this tournament back in 2008, when the tournament was still located in Adelaide. His serve & volley tactics are just perfect for this type of surface and Llodra executes so well this kind of tactic that it takes a huge effort to actually break him a single time during a match. Besides that, Llodra is also able to break serve quite often by using chip & charge tactics on his opponents 2nd serve, in order to put a lot of pressure on their shoulders, as they either hit a great passing shot or Llodra will easily win the point with one of his superb volleys. That's what I expect to happen quite often today, as Llodra will face the veteran Levy, who is very little more than a consistent baseliner, with a poor serve, which Llodra will easily put pressure on during the whole match. Levy will surely have very little chances or no chances at all to break serve today and with Llodra putting pressure on Levy's average at best serve, the French player should easily win this match at the end.

Pick: 1 unit (Single Dime) on Richard Gasquet ML x Michael Llodra ML @ +100 on Bookmaker


WTA Brisbane - Casey Dellacqua vs Sesil Karantchaeva

No player was on court more time this weekend than Sesil Karantchaeva. Everything started last Friday, when she defeated Misaki Doi in the first round of the qualifying by 6-2 6-3. Easy match, no? Wrong! She was 1 hour and 45 minutes on court, having played 131 points in just 17 games, which gives us an average of almost 8 points per game! Then, on Saturday, she defeated Yung-Jan Chan by 6-3 7-6, on a match which lasted another 1 hour and 45 minutes. Finally, yesterday she played the final round of the qualifying, where she defeated Evgeniya Rodina by 6-4 3-6 7-6, on a match that lasted over 3 hours and was interrupted 3 times (2 times due to rain and 1 time due to a necessary court change). The truth is that Karantchaeva spent the whole Sunday on court, after having played a total of 3 hours and 30 minutes on her two previous matches. And if that wasn't enough, she will have to play once again today, in the first round of the main draw against the local Casey Dellacqua.

The Australian player may have played her last WTA match 10 months ago, as she got injured and had to skip almost the whole season of 2009. However, she has already played two weeks ago a wildcard tournament against her fellow Australian players, a tournament which she won, grabbing in that way a wildcard for the main draw of the Australian Open. That win tells us that Dellacqua is already in decent form and I expect her to be able to show us exactly that today against a very tired Karantchaeva. Dellacqua is a good baseline hitter, with good firepower on her shots and I expect her to take control of the baseline rallies today and make Karantchaeva run a lot on the baseline, something she won't be able to do for a long time today, as she will be obviously tired after such a huge effort on the qualifying rounds.

In that way and even with Dellacqua being still a bit far from her best tennis, I don't see a reason for the Australian player to be the underdog in a match against a player who is currently outside the Top 130 and who is just dead tired right now. This match is a 50/50 one and so, I'll gladly take the 2 extra games that we are getting on Dellacqua in here. Take her plus the games.

Pick: 1 unit (Single Dime) on Casey Dellacqua (+2 Games)