The week's most lucrative tournament as far as prize money goes take place on the clay of Kitzbuhel, Austria and it looks wide open to me with no Nadal to screw up the prices at the head of the market.
The top half of the draw here looks impossible to call, with all the big guns and inconsistent types being drawn together, so it could pay to have a bit of fun with a big priced outsider from the bottom half, as none of the favourites are worth backing in my view. Robredo has gone out in the first round two weeks running and Youzhny is a terrible price for a man who has lost to Koubek and Steve Darcis in the last fortnight. Andreev is very much under suspicion at the moment after that match with Volandri in Amersfoort and JC Ferrero always finds one too good these days and has a rematch with Lopez to contend with early.
I couldn't recommend a wager on this event, but I might have a quiet investment on Potito Starace, who has the best of the draw, is fresh and has as much chance as any of the favourites at around the 25-1 and upwards mark. Amersfoort finalist Werner Eschauer may go well again in his home country in the same section of the draw at around 50-1 and for a huge price in the top half of the draw there's Olivier Patience, trading at over 100's to consider. This Frenchman played brilliantly to take Djokovic to five sets at Roland Garros and has been playing well in Challengers, so if there's to be another Steve Darcis here, Patience could be the man.
The other clay court event this week takes place in Umag, Croatia and the field seems to consist purely of players whose surname ends in ic. We've got Djokovic, Ljubicic, Cilic, Tipsarevic, etc etc and I like the look of Novak Djokovic for this one.
Being a Serbian, I'm sure that Djokovic would love to win this tournament in Croatia and I can't see much in the field to stop him quite honestly. Fellow Serb, Janko Tipsarevic might give him a game in the quarters, but I can see little of concern until the final for the world number three. The only slight worry would be over fitness, but he's had a week off since his Wimbledon exertions, so I'm going all in on this one.
Andy Roddick loves the hard court tournament in Indianapolis, has contested three of the last four finals and won two of them, so it's hard to see him not being in the shake up at the weekend. The price on A-Rod is a bit skinny at a shade of odds on but if you can sniff out a better price anywhere then it's probably a wise investment.
The bottom half of the draw looks wide open with defending champion James Blake and other hit or miss types, such as Tursunov and Monfils swinging away there too. Big serving Croatian giant Ivo Karlovic will fancy his chances, although he a has a tough one first up with Kiefer, so it could be interesting to side with Robby Ginepri at Betfair's 40-1 currently.
The Floridian beat Roddick in the quarter's here in 2005 and whilst it is a bit of a punt given Ginepri's recent poor form and a tricky first rounder with Berrer, it is worth taking a chance that the return to the US hard courts will coincide with a return to his best tennis, which can trouble the top ranked stars.
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