ATP Chennai - Thiemo De Bakker vs Rajeev Ram
This may also seem to be a very tough contest to analyze, however
after a deep study on this match, I believe that the much more talented
Thiemo De Bakker should get a clear upperhand over the journeyman
Rajeev Ram.
Thiemo De Bakker had a brilliant end of the season in 2009, having
finally reached the Top 100. After being the best junior player for a
long time, De Bakker struggled to make it to the pros, but those
struggles look history right now. No doubt that he plays better on
claycourts than on fast surfaces, however note that De Bakker played
decently well on the Asian challengers at the end of the season and
with his powerful serve and aggressive ground strokes, he is able to
dictate the points from the baseline and finish them with very few
problems. Besides that, he won’t be facing a really tough opponent that
can actually expose his average at best movement on court or his lack
of a defensive game and so, he should be fine on today’s contest.
His opponent for today is Rajeev Ram, who is known for his serve
& volley tactics and… nothing else really. Ram is a poor baseliner,
with a quite weak backhand and lateral movement, which makes him quite
exposed to powerful players. His forehand may be quite decent, but once
his opponents start attacking his backhand wing and force him to move,
everything is ruined for the American player. To make things even worse
for Ram, the surface of this tournament isn’t fast enough for him to
use his serve & volley tactics at 100%, like a grass or a carpet
surface would be and so, Ram will be forced to stay on the backcourt a
lot of times today, where De Bakker will simply pound him with powerful
ground strokes, forcing Ram to be on a defensive position, something
which he doesn’t do well at all, due to his poor movement on court.
I fully expect De Bakker to pound Ram on the baseline the whole
match and even though Ram will get a lot of cheap points from his serve
& volley tactics, he will be able to do very little on the baseline
rallies and on De Bakker’s service games, making the Dutch player the
overwhelming favorite in here. With the current lines set incorrectly
at 50/50, I’m glad to take the much more talented De Bakker to win in
here.
Single Dime Play on Thiemo De Bakker ML @ -110 on Betus