Paris Masters Tips: Fresh Raonic ready to beat Benneteau

Events / Sean Calvert / 07 November 2011 /

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Raonic raring to go at Bercy?

"The price of around [1.7] on Raonic, who is 12-3 this year on indoor hard-courts looks worth taking... "

Sean Calvert explains why it's worth backing Raonic to hit the ground running and why you should load up on Llodra on day one at Bercy...

The final ATP Masters 1000 event of the 2011 men's tennis season is upon us and I'm concentrating on two of Monday's matches in Bercy from a betting perspective.

At this time of the year punters are guessing a bit on the fitness and desire of the players, for most of whom this is the last event of year, so the first player I'm backing today should be both fit and motivated.

Milos Raonic has missed a fair chunk of the season through injury, but the BNP Paribas Masters will be the Canadian's fifth event of his comeback, so physically he should be fine.

His opponent today, Julien Benneteau, although also having endured time on the sidelines this year, has played a lot of matches lately - 30 since the start of the US hard-court swing and the Frenchman looks to be about done for the year.

Indeed, Benny doesn't usually play Bercy and has only won four matches here his whole career - one of which was a memorable one against Roger Federer.

Raonic's big hitting game should be too much for the Frenchman, who has been beaten by similar heavy hitters in Dmitry Tursunov, John Isner, and Andy Roddick in the last few months.

The price of around [1.7] on the Canadian, who is 12-3 this year on indoor hard-courts looks worth taking on his Bercy debut, as he looks to end the year strongly.

One Frenchman who could go well again here this year is Michael Llodra and the big leftie needs to, as he reached the last four in Bercy in 2010 and has a lot of points to defend.

Again, the courts here suit his game perfectly and at around [1.83] he should prevail against the man that let us down last week, Feli Lopez.

The Spaniard's sole focus right now is on the Davis Cup Final in a few weeks time, where he will surely partner Fernando Verdasco in the doubles, so this could be a good time for Llodra - and us - to cash in.

Lopez and Verdasco play Britain's Colin Fleming and Jamie Murray in the first round of the doubles and after losing first up last week in Valencia, they'll be looking for match time in Bercy.

Lopez has a poor recent record at the Palais Omnisports, with three first round losses in the last four years - the latest two coming at the hands of Llodra's former doubles partner, veteran Arnaud Clement.

Llodra beat Clement in the final of the Orleans Challenger a couple of weeks ago and there's a good chance that his first round loss to Ivan Ljubicic in Basel was with half an eye on saving himself for a good showing this week.

The Frenchman earned 360 points here last year and with just 10 on offer for a first round loss, that should be motivation enough for him to come through.

Lopez and Llodra have met five times, with the Spaniard holding a 3-2 lead, although their last clash was on clay, which you would expect Lopez to win.

They've played once on indoor hard, which Llodra won and the evidence points to a similar outcome this time - particularly after Lopez threw away a set and a break lead in his last match in Valencia.

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