Events / Sean Calvert / 14 March 2012 /

Sean Calvert found some winners yesterday and on a day where the favourites should mostly prevail, the best bet is the in-form Ryan Harrison. He's up against a player in Gilles Simon with a suspect record here at Indian Wells and has every chance.

It was a great day on Tuesday at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, with each bet that I mentioned being a winner.

My recommended wager of the day of over 22.5 games in the Marcos Baghdadis v Alexandr Dolgopolov encounter eased home as the match went exactly to the script and took 32 games before Dolgo won it.

And my suggestion of backing David Nalbandian over Janko Tipsarevic at a nice price proved spot on too, so hopefully a few were on that, while my fancy of Thomaz Bellucci was void as the Brazilian was handed a walkover by Nikolay Davydenko.

Wednesday at the BNP Paribas Open sees Novak Djokovic, Rafa Nadal, Roger Federer, and Victoria Azarenka lead the way and a couple of grudge matches are thrown in for good measure.

It will be worth watching Azarenka v Agnieszka Radwanska and Nico Almagro v Tomas Berdych for entertainment value, as both matches have a bit of needle after their previous encounters.

As for betting, this looks a bit of a favourite's day, with Djokovic and Federer both looking near certainties to progress. Federer meets the left handed Bellucci for the first time and (Nadal apart) Federer has only lost one match to a leftie since 2003.

Jurgen Melzer's win in Monte Carlo last year is what Bellucci will be looking to emulate today and he's around [15.0] to do so.

Djokovic is even shorter at [1.02] and surely only the sickness bug/injury can stop the world number one against the Spaniard, who is in the fourth round of a hard-court tournament for the first time in his career.

Nole hammered Andujar on clay back in 2007 and something similar is expected tonight.

With plenty of short prices around, the value options are limited to David Nalbandian against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Matt Ebden v John Isner and Ryan Harrison v Gilles Simon.

Of these, Nalbandian is rarely a wise wager after he's had a long match the previous day and Isner should have enough game for Ebden, but Harrison has a decent chance against Simon at around [2.18].

I backed Stan Wawrinka to take Simon out in the last round and I still think he should have done, as Simon's consistent Wozniacki-esque pushing shouldn't really suit the conditions at Indian Wells.

Harrison, who I tipped to beat Troicki earlier in the tournament, is on a roll at the moment and he has the type of game that should be more suited to conditions here than that of Simon.

I'm hoping that the prospect of going one better than last year by reaching the quarter finals of a Masters 1000 event for the first time will serve as inspiration for the 19-year-old, who was beaten by Federer in the last 16 in 2011.

The quarter finals would be Simon's best effort at Indian Wells too - indeed this is the Frenchman's first time in the last 16 here - and the bullish, aggressive game of Harrison might well come out on top in the first meeting between the pair.

Harrison gave Andy Murray, who has largely a similar sort of game to Simon (but better), a decent game in Melbourne this year and he's not the type to be cowed by Simon's ranking of 13 in the world.

Recommended Bet:

Back Harrison to beat Simon at around [2.18]

Follow Sean on Twitter @seancalvert1

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