Cincinnati Masters - Back in the game..

I knew my perseverance would pay off eventually and I was proved correct when Ernests Gulbis took out James Blake at [2.54] in the third round of the Cincy Masters yesterday.

That win brought me back into the black and it could even have been so much better, had Robin Soderling taken either of his two match points against Philipp Kohlschreiber instead of wasting them and going down in a final set breaker.

Andy Murray eased past Dmitry Tursunov as well, so all in all it was a very good day, although a certain Mr R Federer wouldn't think so after he was blasted out of the event by Croatian beanpole Ivo Karlovic.

Fed won more points in the match and wasn't broken by Karlovic, however the big man took it in a final set breaker, which all means that Nadal is a bigger favourite than ever he was and is now trading at around the [1.71] mark.

It also means of course that Rafa will take over the world number one mantle that Fed has held since about 1975, as the Spaniard closes in on another title.

I predicted at the start of the event that this could be one for the outsider - I just failed to pick the right ones and who in their right mind would have had Nicolas Lapentti, Carlos Moya and Kohlschreiber down as a potential Cincy champ??

Not me for one, but Andy Murray must fancy this now, with only Moya and the winner from Kohlschreiber and Karlovic in the way of him and a Masters final.

With Nadal and Djokovic still in the event, I wouldn't be rushing to put the mortgage on the Scot collecting the trophy this week, but he must be a solid each-way bet to get to the championship match.

As far as the quarter finals go, it might pay to stay with Gulbis in his match against Djokovic.

The Latvian knows his old hitting partner's game well and he gave Novak a very decent match at Roland Garros.

Gulbis has been steadily on the upgrade of late, while Djokovic looks less than 100 percent at the moment and there are undoubtedly many worse [4.5] shots around today than Gulbis.

I'll be having a small wager and leaving the other three quarters well alone.