General / Ben Caudell / 12 November 2008 /

Ben Caudell looks at the one match that matters at the Shanghai Masters.

Wednesday was not such a good day for our bets after Andrew Murray convincingly beat Gilles Simon in straight sets 6-4 6-2 to leapfrog into the semi-finals. He will now play either Novak Djokovic or the winner of tomorrow's match between Nikolay Davydenko and Juan Martin Del Potro.

A surprising turn of events on Wednesday culminated in Andy Roddicks surprise withdrawl from the tournament and in his place stood Radek 'The Worm' Stepanek who apparently had to borrow a pair of socks, and a different racket for his match against Roger Federer.

To everyone's astonishment the Czech player gave Federer a run for his money, eventually lost 7-6 6-4 during a very entertaining match.

Thursday's match between Djokovic and Jo Wilfried Tsonga is a dead rubber because the Serbian has already qualified and Tsonga is out, having lost two matches already. For that reason, I am therefore going to leave this match alone. There is one match of interest though, whoever wins out of Del Potro and Davydenko will make it into the semi-finals.

Nikolay Davydenko v Juan Martin Del Potro
This match all depends on which player wants it the most, judging by how the pair have performed against Djokovic over the last few days I have to say that Davydenko has been that little bit better. Not only is he hitting the ball a lot cleaner and more accurately than usual, he also looks determined to get through this group. He played exceptionally well in his match against Djokovic and it was only his serve on big points that really let him down. Del Potro, I believe, has his mind on next week's Davis Cup Final and, as mentioned before, will want to keep fit. He has proved himself already this week, having played OK against Djokovic and by beating Tsonga in straight sets. He therefore doesn't need to win this match tomorrow as much as Davydenko does. I expect Davydenko to break Del Portro early on in the match and then hopefully take the first set, and if he can hold his nerves on serve, he will win the match in straight sets.

Selection:

Back Davydenko to win match @ [1.66]
Back Davydenko to win first set 6-4 or 7-5 @ [6.4] and [13.0]

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