Tennis Betting: Boys of summer

General / Sean Calvert / 22 July 2010 / Leave a Comment

Andy Roddick - US hardcourt specialist

"The vast majority of Andy Roddick’s 29 career titles have come on North American hard courts."

The North American hard court season began this week in Georgia as the Atlanta Tennis Championship marked the start of almost two months of steaming hot action - quite literally in some cases, says Sean Calvert.

To prosper in a cauldron of blazing heat, humidity and questionable crowds, you need to be certain type of player - one who can survive amidst the noise and distractions whilst being bombarded with bullet-like serves and thumping forehands.

With no clay court event for six weeks, many of the red dirt exponents will make the trip stateside, but will it be fruitful for them and whom should we look out for at this time of year?

Robby Ginepri is playing his hometown event in Atlanta for the first time this week and he is a classic summer man when it comes to results. In previous years, the Georgia resident has improved massively on the rest of his year's form when the US Open Series kicks off - in fact he's won the opening tournament twice.

He has been known to carry that form through to Flushing Meadows in the past as well, reaching the semis there in 2005, where it took Andre Agassi five sets to down him.

Gin has been in the doldrums in recent years, but after beating Juan Carlos Ferrero and Sam Querrey at Roland Garros he proved he's one of those players you should never write off when he's on a roll.

On the flipside, a typical clay courter who cannot function on a hard surface is Spain's Oscar Hernandez. 'Guindi' has played 37 matches on the hard stuff and lost 32 of them. Not one to keep on your side in the US!

Other poor travellers include Santiago Ventura (won 1, lost 11 on hard), Filippo Volandri (won 9, lost 42), Paulo Lorenzi (1-8), Carlos Berlocq (1-11), Ruben Ramirez-Hidalgo (4-20), and Daniel Gimeno-Traver (1-9).

You get the picture, but there are plenty of clay court specialists who can transfer their skills to hard - just not the ones listed above!

Back to the good 'uns and John Isner is a classic American hard-court player, who despite subtle improvements in his game on other surfaces, will always score the vast majority of his ranking points at this time of the year. The lanky one has a 57-37 winning record on hard-courts, which is the only surface that Isner does hold a winning match record and he's still only 25, so more improvement could occur. Look to him to score heavily this summer.

Of Mardy Fish's 215 career wins, 157 of them have come on hard courts and he's a former finalist at New Haven and Cincinnati, as well as reaching the last eight at the US Open last time he played there in 2008 (lost to Nadal). Fish's recent fitness drive has paid dividends on the grass, where he reached the final at Queen's and won at Newport, so expect that improved mobility to help on hard as well. A dark horse for a possible Masters final or semi- final.

At the top end of the hard court performers, the vast majority of Andy Roddick's 29 career titles have come on North American hard courts, with 16 wins and a further 12 finals, Roddick dominates the stats as far as active players are concerned. He will be disappointed with his solitary US Open title, way back in 2003, but he's been unfortunate to be playing in the Federer era and he does clean up at the smaller events.

Speaking of Federer, he tends to leave his best until Flushing Meadows and is very beatable in the hard-court swing, as is Rafa Nadal, who has won just one title during the swing in his entire career. Look to Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Robin Soderling, Nikolay Davydenko and co to take advantage this year with Juan Martin Del Potro injured.

Another who has graced the upper echelons of the game is David Nalbandian, who remarkably as a former world number three has never won a tournament in the United States. He recently showed great form on his comeback from injury by beating Nikolay Davydenko and Mikhail Youzhny in straight sets in the Davis Cup, but beware his US form.

Nalby blew a great chance to reach the US Open final when conceding a two set lead to Roddick in the 2003 semi, but he's been poor since, not having bettered the last 32 at Flushing Meadows since 2005.

Of his 20 ATP Tour or Grand Slam finals, (won 10, lost 10) he has never reached a single one in the United States. So, when you're having a bet in the next couple of months, check the stats first because the only the toughest survive the North American hard-court swing.