Indian Wells Day Two Tips: Dog's days numbered against Darcis

Events / Sean Calvert / 11 March 2012 /

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Belgian player Darcis is in good form

"At a price of around [2.7] it’s worth siding with Darcis to continue his recent good form... "

Andy Murray's out but there's still plenty to bet on at Indian Wells this week. Following a decent opener, Sean Calvert selects his best day two bets...

It was agonisingly close to being a superb start in Indian Wells yesterday, when my tip Lukasz Kubot served for the win over Andy Roddick.

The Pole couldn't quite see it through, but was an excellent trade from an opening price of around [3.5] and my other tip, Ryan Harrison was a straight sets winner over Viktor Troicki, so it was a good day overall.

Elsewhere, there were a string of eye-opening results, not least Andy Murray's awful loss to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in straight sets.

Murray went out in his opening round for the second straight year at Indian Wells and said that he couldn't hit through the court and that it was like playing on clay, which gives us a player's insight into the conditions.

Today's line-up features my outright selection, Rafa Nadal, plus Roger Federer, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Juan Martin Del Potro in action, but they're all unbackable and instead I think I'll take a chance on another outsider today at a handy price.

Steve Darcis is one of the sick notes of the ATP Tour with 18 retirements/withdrawals in his career and a body so brittle it can fall apart at any moment but, when he is fit, the diminutive Belgian can be a handful, as wins over Radek Stepanek and Viktor Troicki in recent weeks highlight.

He takes on the inconsistent Alexandr Dolgopolov today and at a price of around [2.7] it's worth siding with Darcis to continue his recent good form.

Dolgo can be a class act on his day, but can also be pretty abysmal at times, as losses to the likes of Kubot, Dudi Sela and Flavio Cipolla in the last six months illustrates.

The pair met twice on the Challenger circuit a few years back with Darcis winning both and although that has little relevance today, the value certainly lies with the Belgian, who already has a win over Donald Young under his belt in this tournament.

The Ukrainian has struggled to win matches lately and had to go five sets to beat Greg Jones and Tobias Kamke in Melbourne and has won just one match since (against Lukas Rosol).

The slow starting Dolgopolov has lost the first set in five of his last seven matches and if that happens again tonight, Darcis has a 40-14 winning record when he's taken the opening set in his favour.

Elsewhere, Feli Lopez looks big at [2.4] against Marcos Baghdatis, but the Spaniard's awful record at Indian Wells is a worry, while David Ferrer looks short at [1.1] against Grigor Dimitrov.

I'd also not be wanting to back Fernando Verdasco at [1.44] against Ryan Sweeting or David Nalbandian at a similar price against Marin Cilic.

But I'll stick with Darcis as today's selection.

Follow Sean on Twitter @seancalvert1

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