ATP Masters - Indian Wells (USA)

00.30 Rafa Nadal - Dimitry Tursunov

This will going to be the second game for Rafa and he will play against a player who possess a powerful serve and forehand, difficult at first sight as they will play on hard, but have to mentionate that here the surface is not very faster and those powerful forehand shots won´t have the same effect for Tursunov. The russian comes after a victory against the american Michael Russell, a game with too many mistakes, mistakes that IMO will drag the russian down as Nadal is a fantastic stable deffender. Is all about the surface and also about Nadal´s on fire form, there are no doubts that Tursunov can play on faster surfaces great tennis, but here is as I have said the surface slows the ball more, just like Nadal likes. There is a huge difference for example this tournament and the Rotterdam where is I_Hard, there is a clear difference between the surfaces and as a conclusion Tursunov´s best shot "forehand" won´t have the same effect.


Pick: under 19.5 1.85 7/10

snemet wrote:

00.30 Rafa Nadal - Dimitry Tursunov

This will going to be the second game for Rafa and he will play against a player who possess a powerful serve and forehand, difficult at first sight as they will play on hard, but have to mentionate that here the surface is not very faster and those powerful forehand shots won´t have the same effect for Tursunov. The russian comes after a victory against the american Michael Russell, a game with too many mistakes, mistakes that IMO will drag the russian down as Nadal is a fantastic stable deffender. Is all about the surface and also about Nadal´s on fire form, there are no doubts that Tursunov can play on faster surfaces great tennis, but here is as I have said the surface slows the ball more, just like Nadal likes. There is a huge difference for example this tournament and the Rotterdam where is I_Hard, there is a clear difference between the surfaces and as a conclusion Tursunov´s best shot "forehand" won´t have the same effect.


Pick: under 19.5 1.85 7/10

FT 6:3 6:3

23.00 Rafael Nadal - David Nalbandian

Well, 2-0 Nalbandian leads against Nadal but both games have been played in 2007, since then Nadal has improved a lot and at the moment there is a difference in form and quality as well between them. First of all David won´t make a great advantage from his serve as he don´t possess a very powerful serve and in those rallys there always will going to be only one favourite. Nadal has impress in every his game and he is playing with a lot of motivation, today against Nalbandian I expect even more motivation and I think that he will just win straight sets as he is just more stable and more talented. Nalbandian didn´t had the chance to get the right confidence and I think that will going to be very difficult for him to play against number one. Against Troicki and Kendrick the the player from Argentina didn´t showed enough stability which shuld be the key word here.

Pick: under 21.5 2.10 5/10 3-6 7-6 6-0

22.45 Ivan Ljubicic - Igor Andreev

I just have to go with Ljubicic. I love his style of play, it's old school and every point is different from the other; except when he's loosing, then there's the same pattern repeating itself over and over again.
I think those days are behind him. He was terrible in 2008 after suffering an injury at the end of 2007 or beginning of 2008 (I forgot) but now his confidence and good shot selection is back.
Igor Andreev bases his game on his serve and mighty forehand which will give Ljubo plenty of space to take advantage of. Ivan doesn't go for the winners at any cost, he builds up a point and then executes. The fact that the match will be played in the afternoon (around 2-3 pm) will not help Ljubicic who's coming into his thirties. But from what I've seen from him against Simon, he's in great shape.
Prior to winning against Jo Wilfried Tsonga, Igor Andreev has not done anything of significance this season, he actually suffered some very surprising losses. If is to judge these two by their oponents, then Ljubo is playing excellent tennis as he has lost only to in form or top 20 players.
I think that chances of these two to win today are equal which makes Ljubicic a value at the odds of 2.4 or a little less.

Pick: Ivan Ljubicic 2.40 4/10 4-6 7-6 7-6

23.00 Novak Djokovic - Andy Roddick

Both the player are completely ready to play. I am convinced that the quality of a strong hand on Đoković. From Đoković expect one of the better games this year, if not the best. I still remember the defeat of Roddick in the Australia Open, certainly has Nole even more motivated. All four duel between the two opponents have been extremely heavy. The attraction continue to have all four match is played on hard grounds. I expect that this fight will Đoković won 2-0 in the series and that will be easily managed while in the semi.


Pick: Novak Djokovic 1.75 7/10

Pick: Novak Djokovic 2-0 2.50 5/10