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)