Wimbledon First Round Upsets: Nalbandian and Fognini can upset the odds

Oliver Golding 4.03/1 v Igor Andreev 1.331/3

A bit of a leap of faith this one, but there's a more than decent chance that young Brit Golding can do some damage to Andreev in this encounter. The Russian has been struggling with a shoulder injury in recent weeks whereas Golding comes into this match with nothing to lose and having just beaten Juan Monaco on grass, admittedly in an exhibition match at The Boodles. Andreev has never been much of a grass court specialist with first or second round losses in four of his last five visits to Wimbledon. He hasn't played a match since retiring at Roland Garros and he comes here with no grass court practice and a dodgy shoulder. Good luck if you're on the short price about Andreev in this one.

Vasek Pospisil 4.03/1 v Sam Querrey 1.330/100

Whenever Big Sam is priced up at these sort of odds in the first round of a Slam it always pays to take a serious look at his opponent and Pospisil is a player who could have a very decent future in the game. I was on the Canadian when he lost from match point up against Ryan Harrison at Eastbourne last week, but he showed in that match that he has what it takes to play against the higher ranked players. We know that Querrey can play on grass, but he's never done well at Wimbledon, where he has a 4-4 record. Pospisil enjoys playing on the grass and this match-up of big hitting should suit the 22-year-old, who takes on an opponent that retired through injury in his last match in Eastbourne versus Andy Roddick.

David Goffin 3.814/5 v Bernard Tomic 1.331/3

Tomic is favourite for this one largely due to his run to the quarter finals here last year, but the equally talented Goffin is surely overpriced to take advantage of the Aussie, who is on a poor run of form. Tomic was beaten by Fabio Fognini in an awful match at Eastbourne last week after retiring through illness in Halle the week before, so he may be coming into this a little undercooked. We saw at the French Open how classy an operator Goffin can be and the wild card will be looking to back that up in his first main draw match at Wimbledon. He is very inexperienced on grass compared to Tomic, but he has a good temperament and all the pressure will be on his opponent. Goffin's worth a bet at generous-looking odds.

David Nalbandian 2.35/4 v Janko Tipsarevic 1.748/11

Assuming that the police, the ATP and the All England Club allow the tennis fugitive through the gates this year following his indiscretion at Queen's, Nalbandian is worth a bet to cause a minor upset over the number eight seed. This should be a pretty close affair, as the odds suggest, but I would give the slight edge to the Argentine on grass. Tipsarevic has been beaten in the first round here for the last two years consecutively by Ivo Karlovic and Arnaud Clement. And his warm-up didn't go too well either, with a loss to practice partner Yen Hsun Lu at Queen's. They have met on three occasions in the past with Nalbandian leading 2-1, but they've all been on hard courts and I would expect this grass court meeting to favour Nalbandian.

Fabio Fognini 3.02/1 v Michael Llodra 1.51/2

Llodra would appear to hold all the aces on a grass court against clay court specialist Fognini, but these Wimbledon courts are usually lacking in pace and the Frenchman has a poor record here in any case. Llodra reached the last 16 here 12 months ago against some pretty average opposition, but other than that he's never bettered the last 64 and he's suffered defeat in the opening round five times here. Fognini upset another fancied lefty in the first round here on his previous appearance at Wimbledon when he defeated Fernando Verdasco in four sets and I think he'll fancy upsetting the odds again after a decent warm-up at Eastbourne, where he beat Tomic and almost defeated Andy Roddick. Llodra has been in poor form of late, with eight losses from his previous 10 matches on all surfaces and Fognini dealt with him comfortably in their Monte-Carlo meeting recently. The current price of 3.02/1 on Fognini seems like a good investment to me.