Indian Wells Tips: Super Stan to take a step forward

Events / Sean Calvert / 12 March 2012 /

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Will Stan be whipping out the old fist pump once more?

"Stan Warwinka generally shows good form here at Indian Wells and he has two quarter-final appearances in his last three visits to the California desert."

Sean Calvert likes Warwinka's chances at a tournament where he's enjoyed himself in the past

Yesterday's advice of backing Steve Darcis against Alexandr Dolgopolov made for a successful trade for back-to-lay punters, as the Belgian took the first set but unfortunately failed to complete the job.

Monday's programme at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden features world number one Novak Djokovic as the evening match before Caroline Wozniacki, Maria Sharapova and Tomas Berdych take to the courts later on.

Djokovic should face a bit of a test from the in-form Kevin Anderson, who won Delray Beach last time out and who did beat Djokovic in their first meeting in Miami back in 2008.

It might be worth a cheap lay of Djokovic at around [1.05] in that one on the off chance that the big South African can continue his good run of form.

But a more solid wager should prove to be taking the [1.68] about Stan Wawrinka to defeat Gilles Simon in a match that takes place at around 10pm UK time on Stadium Court 2.

Stan generally shows good form here at Indian Wells and he has two quarter-final appearances in his last three visits to the California desert, losing out only to Roger Federer and Djokovic, so it's clearly one of his favourite tournaments.

By way of contrast, Simon has never made it past the last 32 here and his losses here in the last two years have come at the hands of Ivo Karlovic and Brian Dabul.

Simon has endured a poor start to 2012, with no wins over top-50 ranked opponents at all this year and an awful Golden Swing in South America that saw him win just one match in three tournaments - and that was over Rui Machado.

A streaky, confidence player, Simon looks one to be against at the moment and he just scraped into the third round with a narrow win over Dudi Sela, taking just four of his 17 break point chances and serving at less than 50% of first deliveries in.

The pair have met once before, with Wawrinka coming out on top in straight sets on a hard court in Shanghai in 2010 and I expect him to do something similar again today in the battle of the Swiss residents.

Elsewhere, having had a small punt on John Isner at a silly price outright pre-tournament, I'll be rooting for the big man today when he takes on Juan Monaco and Nico Almagro should confirm his dominance over Santiago Giraldo.

Berdych should also come through against Andy Roddick and those three might be worth consideration for a Betfair Multiple today.

Follow Sean on Twitter @seancalvert1

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