Events / Sean Calvert / 25 July 2011 /

Juan Martin Del Potro is a strong favourite to win this event but that's because he's the class performer with a good draw in a weakish looking field. Bet accordingly, says Sean Calvert.

The start of the hard-court swing was agonisingly close to being a perfect one for this column, as my tip from last week, John Isner, somehow lost in the Atlanta final after blowing a seemingly unassailable lead against Mardy Fish.

Isner was 5-1 up in the second set tie breaker and held two match points, trading at [1.02] in the process, so hopefully some of you layed off from his pre-tournament price of [5.0] and made a profit. It was a shocking choke from a man with a serve like his, but that's tennis.

The North American hard-court swing rolls on to Los Angeles this week for the Farmer's Classic - an ATP 250 event in the US Open Series.

This historic tournament, held at UCLA's campus, has attracted a decent-looking field as always, where Juan Martin Del Potro will be the star attraction.

The Argentine, who has improved from world number 484 earlier this year to his current rank of 19, is the number two seed this week behind Fish, and comes here for the first time since winning it in 2008.

In fact, Delpo has never dropped a set at the Farmer's Classic and you would have to strongly fancy his chances of adding another trophy to the nine career titles he currently has.

The 22-year-old is drawn in the bottom half, where his main dangers are hard to find, with pretty much all of the big shot-makers drawn in the adjacent half.

Brazilian clay courter Thomaz Bellucci, and the much over-hyped and so far somewhat disappointing Grigor Dimitrov are the other seeds in the half, along with veterans Xavier Malisse, James Blake and Tommy Haas.

Ernests Gulbis can play when he feels like it of course, but is down at number 81 in the world now and is coming off four straight first round losses; the Latvian has reached just one semi final all year - back in January in Sydney.

The top half of the draw looks much harder to call, with Fish surely needing a break soon after his Davis Cup and Atlanta exertions.

Fish will probably have a tricky one first up, with Atlanta semi finalist Gilles Muller the likely opponent. He also has Somdev Devvarman, Ryan Sweeting, Igor Kunitsyn and Fernando Gonzalez in his quarter.

Gonzalez's career has been curtailed by hip and leg injuries and he's currently down at number 296 in the rankings, but if he's fit he'll be a threat, although he hasn't played since losing to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at Wimbledon.

In the next quarter there are a number of possibilities, with Marcos Baghdatis and Dmitry Tursunov the top seeds.

They might not have things all there own way though, as young guns, Ryan Harrison and Richard Berankis can play on hard-courts, as can Robby Ginepri and Yen Hsun Lu, on their respective days.

Baghdatis will be looking to build upon his return to form at Wimbledon, where he gave eventual champion Novak Djokovic arguably his toughest match of the tournament. But the Cypriot has reached just one quarter final on hard-courts this year - back in the first event of 2011 in Brisbane.

He's the type to pop up with great form from nowhere though, so don't count him out, even though he's going through coaches like nobody's business at the moment - Miles Maclagan being the latest one charged with bringing success back to the former Australian Open finalist, who's around [10.0] this week.

Tursunov has been steadily improving after a torrid time with injuries and won on grass in S'Hertogenbosch just before Wimbledon, which has seen him rise back inside the top-50 for the first time since September 2009.

The Russian fell as low as number 516 this time last year and he's a lively contender for this on his best form at around [17.0].

But Del Potro should be a good thing for this at around [2.4]. He's head and shoulders above these on hard-courts on his best form and he looks more and more like that's just around the corner at the moment.

Recommended bet:

Back Del Potro at [2.4]

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