Events / Sean Calvert / 18 July 2011 /

We're on the hard courts of the US this week where big-serving John Isner will be eyeing up a win in a tournament where he has a good record. And we'll be hoping he does just that.

I said in my Mercedes Cup preview last week that it was a wide open tournament and so it proved, with not a single seeded player making it through to the quarter finals.

That's the first time since Houston in 2009 that a tournament has had a seedless last eight and in the end it was a great win for Juan Carlos Ferrero, who was playing his first event since May.

Thankfully, as far as picking winners is concerned, the North American hard-court swing begins this week with the Atlanta Tennis Championships at the Racquet Club of the South.

This ATP 250 event is being held for the only the second time in recent years after it returned to the calendar in 2010 and last year's champion, Mardy Fish, returns to defend his title.

Fish is favourite to repeat that win and he should be well attuned to a hard-court surface after getting nine tough sets under his belt whilst on Davis Cup action in Austin last week.

He didn't actually win either of his two singles rubbers, though. They were both long matches and Fish has never been the most resilient of specimens when it comes to injury and illness and I wouldn't be too quick to snap up the [3.8] on offer this week.

As the world number nine at the moment, Fish is easily the biggest draw in this event, so it's likely he'll turn up even if he's a bit below par - but it's questionable whether he'll go all the way again.

The other big draw this week is local boy, John Isner, who lost in the final to Fish in a final set breaker in 2010 and it's a good bet that the big man will be there on Sunday for another shot at his home title.

After a poor year, Isner showed signs of a return to form in the grass-court season, where he won the title in Newport. Back on his favoured American hard-courts, he looks the bet at around [5.0].

One place above Isner in the world rankings is the number two seed here, Kevin Anderson.The pair are drawn together in the bottom half of the Atlanta draw and should meet in the semis.

If that is the case, it will be a repeat of last year's Atlanta semi-final, in which Isner prevailed in three sets.

The South African did exact some revenge for that defeat when beating Isner in Miami this year and he comes to Atlanta as a better player than 12 months ago, after having won his first Tour level title - in Johannesburg this year.

But there are some real hard-court veterans in that bottom half of the draw, including the likes of James Blake, Michael Russell, Robby Ginepri, and Tommy Haas, plus Ernests Gulbis, Gilles Muller, Yen Hsun Lu, Igor Kunitsyn, Alex Bogomolov Jr and Donald Young.

The top half has its share of gnarly hard-court sluggers as well, with the likes of Lleyton Hewitt, and Xavier Malisse complementing young guns, Grigor Dimitrov, Ryan Harrison, Richard Berankis, Somdev Devvarman and Ryan Sweeting.

Hewitt's various ailments have seen him slide to 174 in the world, but he's still capable of producing results in tournaments such as this, although [17.0] seems a bit short for a man whose last hard-court title was in 2007.

A better value alternative at more than twice the price is Devvarman, who has only been beaten by Roger Federer, David Ferrer and Rafa Nadal in his last three hard-court events.

The Indian player reached the final of Johannesburg this year and has beaten the likes of Milos Raonic, Malisse and Marcos Baghdatis on hard in 2011.

Devvarman is priced up at around [40.0] and if you're after a big priced runner with a chance, then he should be on your shortlist.

Recommended bets:

Back Isner at [5.0]
Back to lay Devvarman at [40.0]

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