Events / Ben Caudell / 18 August 2010 /

Today Ben Caudell turns his attentions to Rogers Cup winner Andy Murray, who faces another in-form player in Jeremy Chardy. This looks somewhat tricky on paper for the Scot but his class should come to the fore...

Andy Murray comes into this week's Cincinnati Masters on a high after defeating U.S Open favourites Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in the Rogers Cup to reclaim the title he won last year. The 23 year old Scot, who is experiencing a magnificent run of form in the lead up to the year's final Grand Slam tournament is coach-less but appears to be enjoying his new found freedom using a more attacking style of play.

Tonight Murray will face big serving Jeremy Chardy, a player ranked 58 in the world and an opponent Murray defeated in straight sets in last year's Rogers Cup, held in Montreal. Chardy, who is also experiencing a decent run of form having reached the quarter finals of Toronto last week, punched above his weight in recording wins over Marcos Baghdatis, Fernando Verdasco, and Nikolay Davydenko, before bowing out to Novak Djokovic 6-2 6-3.

The Frenchman, who has one match already under his belt in Cincinnati, a 6-2 7-6 win over qualifier Florian Mayer of Germany, is 3-11 against players ranked in the Top 10, 5-5 in Masters Series events and 7-3 on hard courts. Chardy has also lost six of his last seven matches when priced as a heavy underdog.

Murray has played two tournament finals in the last two weeks so there is always the worry that he may be a little fatigued coming into this match; however it is important to note that unlike some players the Scot very rarely bows out in the opening rounds after a competition title win the previous week.

This was apparent last year when the Australian Open finalist defeated Juan Martin Del Potro to win the Rogers Cup and then went onto reach the Semi Finals of Cincinnati, losing to eventual winner Roger Federer. He recently stated that his form could not be better going into his final tournament tune-up prior to the New York start a week from next Monday " I feel good and that's the most important thing "Murray said. "I want to continue my work from last week, if I can do that I'll be pleased. Toronto shows that things are going in the right direction".

Although this should be a straight forward win for Murray he is too short to back at [1.13] in the match odds. Instead back "unders" on the Total Games market and to win by more than 5.5 games at a much better price...

Selection:

Back Under 19.5 Games @ [1.95]
Back Murray -5.5 Games @ [2.10]

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