Sony Ericsson Open Sunday's Tips: No reason for Blake to be celebrating tonight

Events / Ben Caudell / 29 March 2009 / Leave a Comment

Ben Caudell talks us through his reasoning for siding with the usually inconsistent Tomas Berdych as he takes on crowd favourite James Blake.

The third round of the Sony Ericsson Open begins this afternoon with eight of the sixteen top seeds in action. Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Roddick will headline today's order of play; there are also matches for seeded players, Jo Wilfred Tsonga, Gilles Simon, Gael Monfils, James Blake, and Tommy Robredo.

Taylor Dent, Robert Kendrick, and Frederico Gil are the remaining qualifiers left in the tournament. Qualifiers complied a 10-2 first round record on Wednesday and Thursday, tying the tournament record from 1990. But over the next two days qualifiers went 3-7. The best result for a qualifier in the tournament's history was recorded two years ago when Guillermo Canas was runner-up to Novak Djokovic.

Today's Selections:

James Blake (US) V Tomas Berdych (CZE) -

These two players are tied at 2-2 in head-to-heads. Berdych, however, has won the last two matches, both on clay and both in international team matches (Davis up and World Team Cup). James Blake has had an inconsistent start to the 2009 season. The American has struggled to find any kind of form since his ankle injury sustained during a doubles match at San Jose in February.

At last week's BNP Paribas Open, Blake was over powered by Fernando Gonzalez, winning a paltry 34% of second serve points, and just 19% of first serve return points. Tomas Berdych's style of play is similar to Fernando Gonzalez's - he will set out early on to put pressure on Blake's serve and if the Czech doesn't have any concentration lapses, he will surely capitalise on the American's lack of confidence.

Selection: Back Tomas Berdych @ [2.22] to win match
Lay James Blake 2-0 @ [3.0]

Na Li (CHN) v Vera Zvonareva (RUS) -

Both these players are at the top of their games. Zvonareva is 9-1 and Li 8-2. Zvonareva, the winner of last week's BNP Paribas Open, defeated Li in two close-fought sets 6-4 6-4 a week ago, so it is of no surprise that the price on Zvonareva to win this match is as short as [1.30] to back. If Na Li takes advantage of Vera's poor second serve - she had eight break points against the Russian, converting only one in their last match - and if the Chinese manages to hold on to her own serve, this match could turn out to be a lot closer than what the odds reflect.