Tennis Betfacts / Sean Calvert / 23 February 2009 / Leave a comment

On current form, there is nobody in this tournament who can trouble Andy Murray, says Sean Calvert. But should we trust the formbook?

Credit crunch, what credit crunch? Yes, with the planet in the grip of financial meltdown, what better use could there be of our bank's resources than a bit of tennis sponsorship in the Gulf?

In a week where Andy Murray has been lamenting the loss of the Bank of Scotland as a sponsor, he needn't have worried because this week's ATP event is the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, with $2.3 million of our money as the prize fund. You didn't really want that mortgage offer anyway, did you?

After last week's debacle in Memphis, I'm hoping for a better display than the insipid effort that Robin Soderling served up and the men I'm entrusting with the responsibility are Andy Murray and Marin Cilic.

Murray should, in theory, walk this event and if there's any [2.4] or better still on offer anywhere, that should be snapped up, as the Scot has no one to concern him in this tournament on current form.

He has been handed a kind draw, with Sergiy Stakhovsky as an opener and Marat Safin as the seed in his quarter, but Richard Gasquet is lurking as a dangerous floater there too. However, it's questionable whether the Frenchman will make it that far.

The adjacent quarter to Murray has only the woefully out of form Igor Andreev and the declining David Ferrer as seeds and it is likely that neither will emerge to face Murray in the semi-finals.

Andreev hasn't won a match since the Australian Open, losing in the first round on each of his three subsequent events and he faces last year's finalist Feliciano Lopez first up.

Lopez came into this tournament last year with no form to speak of whatsoever, but went on a sparkling run before losing out to Andy Roddick in the final.

The Spaniard has the ability to do that again, but [36.0] is a bit short for a man of his inconsistency and Andreev's current mark of [110.00] is more tempting, as he too is the sort to shrug off poor form on go on an unexpected run.

It would be a major shock if Murray didn't emerge from his half to face the winner of a tricky looking top section, which contains the likes of Novak Djokovic, Cilic, Gilles Simon and Ivo Karlovic - all dangerous on their respective days.

Djokovic represents poor value at [4.3] on recent displays that have seen him defeated by Roddick, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Jarko Nieminen and Ernests Gulbis in his last four events.

The Serbian hasn't been the same since his well documented change of racquet at the end of last year and he will surely be usurped in the rankings by Murray sooner rather than later.

He faces little Flavio Cipolla in a first rounder that I expect him to win, but with Cilic in his quarter I can see Djokovic losing out before the semi-final stage.

Cilic is slowly but surely starting to fulfil his potential under the tutelage of Bob Brett and his form this year is superb, having won two titles (Zagreb and Chennai) and posting a 13-1 record for the season.

Although Djokovic has won both meetings with Cilic so far, the most recent of these was a very tough battle in the US Open and the signs are that Cilic will turn that around should they meet here.

The Croatian has a tough first round match with the occasionally brilliant Janko Tipsarevic and if he gets past that I fancy him to go all the way to the final and a likely meeting with Murray, which represents value at [14.0].

Number three seed Simon can't complain too much about his draw in general, but he must be careful not to underestimate first round opponent Mohammed Ghareeb.

The wild card from Kuwait can play a bit, as he proved when troubling Roger Federer in this event in 2006 and taking a set off Tomas Berdych here in 2007, so there are worse first round lays to be had than slow-starting Simon at around [1.04].

Other than that, Simon's only worry might be Karlovic in his quarter.

Karlovic is having a poor year so far though and he won't be looking forward to another meeting with 'The Magician' as he is seeded to do in the second round.

Fabrice Santoro has a 2-0 record over Karlovic and wouldn't it be great to see the Frenchman, who won the title here in 2002, bamboozle the Croatian again in probably his final appearance here.

In conclusion then, Murray should prevail in Dubai and I like the look of Cilic to cause havoc in the top half of the draw and dispose of Djokovic.