Events / Ben Caudell / 20 August 2009 /

Two baseliners meet tonight in Cincinnati for what should be an absorbing contest. But who is Ben Caudell backing?

Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) v Gilles Simon (FRA) -

This match is the battle of the baseliners. Both players possess similar game styles, grinding out rallies from the back of the court and forcing their opponents into errors. Neither possess killer weapons in their armoury, their serves are consistent but don't expect many aces and you won't see either player approaching the net on a regular basis.

Both Nikolay Davydenko and Giles Simon have been playing below their true form of late, Simon is showing little of the ability he possessed in the 2008 hard court season which saw him win the Indianapolis Open and reach the semi-final in Toronto where he defeated Roger Federer in the second round. Davydenko has played few matches this year on hard courts and only has one loss - last week's defeat by Andy Murray; he is 9-1 for all matches.

I expect this match to go to three sets so back Over 23.5 Games, Simon is still to be broken this week so the possibility of a tie-break is also on the cards. Their head-to-head reads 2-1 in favour of Simon so there is value to be backed on the Frenchman.

Selection:
Back Gilles Simon @ [2.72] to win match
Back Over 23.5 Games @ [1.9]

Chris Guccione (AUS) v Tomas Berdych (CZE)

Guccione, the 6ft 7 big serving Australian is having one of the best tournaments of his career. Having qualified with straight sets wins over Andrey Golubev and Robert Kendrick, he has then gone on to defeat Philipp Kohlschreiber ranked 23 in the world and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga ranked 7. The man mountain obviously enjoys playing on the Cincinnati hard courts having also qualified the previous year before losing a third round match against Fernando Verdasco in two tie-break sets. Hitting consistently over-15 aces per match, players are finding it hard to get to grips with his serve. Berdych seems to struggle against big servers and this was highlighted last week when at the same stage in the tournament he lost to John Isner.

I can see this being a similar story, Guccione leads their head-to-head series 2-0 with both wins being played on hard courts; another win is surely on the cards?

Selection:
Back Chris Guccione @ 2.53 to win match

Best Bet: Back Over 23.5 Games @1.9 - Nikolay Davydenko v Gilles Simon (QF Cincinnati Masters)

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