Events / Ben Caudell / 16 August 2010 /

Ben Caudell talks us through the best betting opportunity of day one at the Cincinatti Masters as ATP Tour stalwart takes on the very young and very confident Alexandr Dolgopolov.

David Ferrer (ESP) v Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR)

Spanish no.4 David Ferrer is eager to get his North American hard court campaign off to a flying start in preparation for the U.S Open that commences at the end of August. Ferrer was a little unlucky when he was matched against the in-form and rejuvenated David Nalbandian in his first match of the Rogers Cup last week losing to the Argentine 7-5 3-6 6-3 it a closely-fought contest. The Valencia resident, who is currently ranked at no.11 in the ATP World Tour Rankings, has a decent record at the Cincinnati Masters and will be aiming to equal his quarter final appearances in 2006 and 2007.

Although the American hard courts are not David Ferrer's favoured surface, he still manages to grind out dogged displays of grit and determination from the back of the court against even the better players. Today he faces in Alexandr Dolgopolov a player who is still something of an unknown entity on all surfaces and someone who has sprung up from relative obscurity to record virtuous wins over top ranked players.

The young, confident and highly talented 21 year-old who has a certain arrogance about his game, considers that he can one day become the number one ranked player in the world. At the rate he is moving up the rankings - he has moved from a ranking of 131 in the world to a high of 39 in July - he will achieve this by this time next year!!!!

I believe the Ukrainian no.1 proved last week in the Rogers Cup that he has the game to compete on the hard-courts by defeating Philipp Petzschner and Mikhail Youzhny in three sets before losing in the third round to Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych also in three.

He does however have a tendency to take a while to get into the swing of things. In both wins at the Toronto Masters Dolgopolov lost the first set 6-1, so it might be worth considering waiting until the first set is over before placing a bet.

My feeling is that Ferrer will find it hard to get to grips with the Ukrainian's style of play, having never faced him before and may well run out of ideas as to how to break down the flamboyant youngster. I can see this match going to three sets and believe that there will be ample trading opportunities to get stuck in, with the value bet pre-match being Dolgopolov.

Selection:

Back Alexandr Dolgopolov @ [3.4] to win match
Back Dolgopolov 2-0 @ [6.7]

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