Sony Ericsson Open Day One Tips: Ernests wants out of Florida so get against him!

Events / Ben Caudell / 25 March 2009 / Leave a Comment

Ben Caudell begins 12 days of tennis tips with a back of a player who once looked as though he was heading to the very top.

Today sees the start of another Master Series 1000 (ATP) and Premier (WTA) event. Only three days after the Final of the BNP Paribas Open was contested, the Sony Ericsson Open will be the last top tier event played on hard court before the start of the clay court season.

With $9 million in prize money the Sony Ericsson Open is currently the largest tournament in the world with title sponsorship. The Open is also considered by many to be one of the most prestigious titles in professional tennis and has been awarded 'Tournament of the Year' by the ATP in eight of the last ten years, winning the same accolade from the WTA in 2004. Interestingly, this year's event will be the only tournament of the year that the women's champion will receive a larger cheque than the men's champion!

Nikolay Davydenko won this last year, defeating Rafael Nadal in the final, but he will not be here due to injury. However, Serena Williams is back after a two week break and will be favourite to win her sixth Miami title and her third in a row after winning in 2007 and 2008.

Once again, I will be giving out my daily tips during the 12 days in Miami, hoping to find value matches to bet on rather than short odds favourites. Good luck and may the battles commence...

Today's Selections:

Ernests Gulbis (LAT) v Marcos Baghdatis (CYP)
Baghdatis has recently been on a tough, intensive training regime in a bid to get him back to the form and promise he was showing two seasons ago. The Cypriot has had an interesting start to 2009, reaching the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, Delray Beach and Johannesburg. The last tournament he played in was a Davis Cup tie against Portugal where he managed to display some of capabilities of old, convincingly defeating Frederico Gill and Rui Machado. Ernests Gulbis is another player with incredible talent, however he lacks the focus and determination to fulfil his true potential. He has won only four out of his last ten matches on hard court this year with his most notable win coming against Novak Djokovic. The young Latvian will be looking forward to playing on the red stuff - his favoured surface - and has signed up to three clay court events immediately after Miami finishes. Maybe his mind will be on this rather than defeating Bagdhdatis and with the Cypriot having a 3-0 head-head-head over the Latvian including a recent straight sets win at Delray Beach there can be only one winner for me.
Selection: Back Marcos Bagdhatis @ [1.7] to win match


Francesca Schiavone (ITA) v Tsvetana Pironkova (BUL)
Although Schiavone has a winning head-to-head record against the Bulgarian 2-0, I am going to oppose her for this match. Firstly, her form this year has been pretty poor, she struggles against lower ranked players or when she playing against an under-dog. Unconvincingly, she has only a 35 per cent success rate on hard court within the last year and 20 per cent success rate within the last three months. Pironkova, I believe is the value bet and will hopefully win in straight sets.
Selection: Back Tsvetana Pironkova @ [2.3]