[edtkh]

Not a great day for Martic, unfortunately. Nice try at some dry and senseless humour though...

10pts on 5-fold acca @ 3.04 (Ladbrokes)
Baghdatis
Jankovic
Li Na
Djokovic
Monaco

Djokovic, for all his tendency of making hard work of matches in the early rounds of Slams, should prove too strong for Troicki. Baghdatis, Jankovic, Li Na too should prove too strong for their respective opponents although Jankovic, very much like Djokovic (probably a Serbian trait), does have a knack of making their victories less comfortable than they should be.

Monaco is very generously priced for this one IMO as Polansky hasn't really done much on tour this year. A couple of decent runs on the Challengers and a wild card at Toronto can't do much to bridge the gulf in class. Monaco may be a bit of a claycourt specialist, but his hardcourt game has come on a fair bit over the last few years. He should have too much for the Canadian.


10pts on 3-fold acca @ 3.42 (Ladbrokes)
Stepanek
Sharapova
Nieminen
Nadal

Sharapova and Nadal are pretty straightforward and just stuff to beef up the acca.

Nieminen has had a pretty rough patch over the last year or two, but there's no taking away his strengths on the hardcourts where he's always seemed to do well against Tier 2 opponents - Gimeno-Traver clearly doesn't belong in the same league and would need to catch Nieminen on an off-day to stand any chance.

I think it's ridiculous for Benneteau to start as the favourite against Stepanek. Granted, Stepanek has had his own troubles with form and fitness this year, but there's no denying Stepanek's pedigree having been a consistent performer over the last couple of years. Incidentally, Stepanek has won both previous encounters with Benneteau on hardcourt without having dropped a set in the process. Certainly worth a shot at the price.

Cheers & Good Luck!

Starting Bank: 100.00pts
Current Bank: 95.00pts
Profit/Loss: -5.00pts