Indian Wells Daily Tips: Everything suggests Soderling can't handle Murray

Events / Sean Calvert / 19 March 2010 / Leave a Comment

Andy Murray has a super record in Masters series events in the US

"For my money Soderling has it all to prove in hot conditions on outdoor hard courts. He has never been past the second round in Melbourne and only made the quarter finals of the US Open once – and that run was aided by two retirements from five matches."

Sean Calvert has had a good few days and plans to build on an already healthy bank balance by siding with Andy Murray against Robin Soderling, an in-form player but one with a poor record in both outdoor hard courts and Masters Series.

Thursday was a very profitable day at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, as all three of my advised bets were successful.

Rafa Nadal and Ivan Ljubicic were too strong for Tomas Berdych and Juan Monaco and Rafa did the business in straight sets, so we head into Friday with a healthy bank balance.

On Friday, Andy Murray takes on Robin Soderling for the first time in four years in their quarter final clash, and this has all the makings of an entertaining encounter.

These two have only ever met indoors, where Murray holds a 2-1 head-to-head advantage, but both of them have obviously improved a lot since 2006, so the history tells us little.

Both players have reached this stage without dropping a set, so they are each in good form, but on this relatively slow surface you would think that Murray's defences would be able to frustrate the Swede into plenty of unforced errors.

Another factor in Murray's favour is Soderling's poor Masters Series record - he is yet to better the quarter finals in his 43 previous attempts and this is his first time in the last eight of any of the three North American Masters events (Miami, Canada and Indian Wells).

For my money Soderling has it all to prove in hot conditions on outdoor hard courts. He has never been past the second round in Melbourne and only made the quarter finals of the US Open once - and that run was aided by two retirements from five matches.
Before this week, the Swede hadn't won a match outdoors in 2010 and he was beaten in all of the North American Masters events in the opening round last year. These sort of facts are often overlooked by Soderling fans, but when compared to Murray's figures, it's not even close.

The Scot has won four Masters events (three of them on North American hard courts) and he was in the final here last year, so the proven ability and experience is there.
The [1.57] on Murray looks a fair enough price and is the recommended bet in this one.
The last quarter final looks very one sided indeed, as Andy Roddick holds a 10-0 advantage in career meetings over Tommy Robredo.

The Spaniard has won only one set from 26 played against Roddick and as Robredo has shown no signs of improvement since their last clash, the 2-0 in set betting to the American looks the call at [1.51].