Cincinnati - Day 2

Typical. No bet of the day advised and each of the wagers I was toying with (but eventually decided against) waltzed home in straight sets without breaking sweat.

I think it would have been sheer madness to have steamed in on Robby Ginepri at odds-on, given his current form, but he always seems to make things happen at this time of year and the Floridian took out veteran Swede, Jonas Bjorkman, four and four.

My other fancy, Jarko Nieminen gave Tommy Robredo a good hiding, as I thought he might, but the Finnish number one’s record against top ten players is abysmal and given the negative head-to-head stats, I gave that one a swerve too.

Best bet of the day – and I couldn’t believe the odds on this one – was Arnaud Clement at 3.90 to beat Paul-Henri Mathieu and beat him he did, in straight sets, 6-4 6-2. Although I had made a small wager on Mathieu to win the event outright at 150.0, the price on Clement was too good to miss and I profited nicely on that match.

So, one of my outright bets falls at the first, meanwhile another one - James Blake cruised through his first round encounter with Alejandro Falla by 7-6 6-1 and next faces German, Nicolas Kiefer. Hopefully, Blake is over the stomach injury from last week, because he is due a good run and may well get one if fit.

My other outright bets begin their campaigns today and both have tricky matches. Richard Gasquet faces the ever-competitive Lleyton Hewitt and Fernando Gonzalez will be looking for some form against JC Ferrero.

There are some cracking matches on today’s coupon and the lay of the day for me has to be Tomas Berdych in his match with Arnaud Clement. The Czech has been having a poor run of late and tends to get a bit moody if he’s not dictating matches (think Nadal at Wimbledon and Volandri in Rome), which he may not be able to do against Clement. Berdych is not known as much of a battler when behind and odds of 1.41 are too short I feel against an opponent who is tough to beat when his confidence is up, which it should be after the Mathieu victory. The price of around 7.6 for a Clement straight sets win is a tempter and I may have a serious look at that later on.

Elsewhere on today’s card, it’s worth considering comeback kid, Mario Ancic, at 1.75 to beat Jurgen Melzer after his great win over Tommy Haas last night, assuming it hasn’t taken too much out of him. It’s difficult to know what sort of shape Ancic is in, following his illness, so small stakes on this one.

Also worth a look today are Radek Stepanek at 2.50 to beat David Ferrer and possibly a multiple to include Baghdatis, Del Potro and Djokovic.