Shanghai Masters Cup Day Two Tips: Red Group gets underway with suggested bets on both matches

General / Ben Caudell / 09 November 2008 / Leave a Comment

Ben Caudell has rooted through the Shanghai Masters odds to bring you his day two bets featuring Roger Federer and Andy Murray.

The Masters Cup got under way on Sunday with a convincing win for Novak Djokivic over Juan Martin Del Potro. That was his first win in Shanghai for two years and sets him up nicely in achieving qualification from the Gold group. Jo Wilfried Tsonga lost to Nikolay Davydenko in a 2hr 45 min epic that was won in a last set tiebreak by the Russian.

On Monday we will see the start of what I believe to be the tougher of the groups, the Red Group which includes Roger Federer, Andy Roddick, Andy Murray and Gilles Simon. Federer, the four time champion, will open his campaign against Gilles Simon at 11am (CET) and attempt to join Pete Sampras and Ivan Lendl as the only five-time title winners in circuit history.

Roger Federer v Gilles Simon
Simon made the Shanghai Masters Cup via the back door thanks to Rafael Nadal's withdrawl from the tournament, this could strangely give him an advantage against the other players in the group having nothing to lose and all to gain. Simon also has a winning record against Federer, after a three set win on hard court at this year's Toronto Masters. Federer retired from the Paris Masters last week sighting back pains, so will he be 100%? Who knows?! What we do know is that Simon is no pushover and has the battling spirit, often fighting back to win matches that he ought to have lost. An interesting fact to look at is that Simon hasn't played under 20 games in any of his last 14 ATP tour singles matches.

Selection: Back over 20.5 games @ approx even money
Back Simon +4.5 Games @ approx [1.8]

Andy Murray v Andy Roddick
This match will be an all explosive encounter with Murray the favourite with a 4-2 head to head advantage over the American, two of those wins importantly on indoor hard. These two very rarely go to three sets so look for value on Murray to win 2-0

Selection: Back Andy Murray 2 - 0 @ [2.3]

Good Luck