General / / 22 August 2007 /

Perfecseun with his selection from today's matches

Pilot Pen Tennis, New Haven

T. Johansson (Sweden) vs P. Starace (Italy)

Starace has been one of the most improved players this year even if has done very littleto put him in the spotlight. He started the year ranked 83rd on the singles ranking and is up to 31st as of today with a high of 30th as of last week. He accumulated his points showing fine form on clay but his tennis game is good enough to mix it on the hard court.

The young Italian will definitely know he has a chance of cutting down 1.37 favourite Thomas Johansson who has done little this year to justify that price. The Swede did win a challenger series last week defeating players ranked in the high hundreds and 200+. His last hard court match he lost to Paul Capdeville, who was ranked at 122 at the time. Other than that, he has not beaten anyone reputable on hard courts nor get past the 1st or 2nd round of any competition hence the drop to challengers.

Johansson in this match offers no value. Even if he does win, he is not worth backing. He started the year at 71 and is currently ranked 72. Starace has made giant strides in his tennis game and it seems clay court players are finding some extra form during this US Open series, just look at Amagro, Ferrer and Del Potro.

This is the first encounter between the pair and Johansson will struggle to make that step up from last week´s challenger opponents to a much improved top 50 player.

Suggested Bets: Lay T. Johansson to wim 2-0 sets @ 1.9 and Lay T. Johansson to win the match @ 1.37

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