Events / Ben Caudell / 15 May 2009 /

Ben Caudell picked another winner yesterday when he predicted Gilles Simon's demise at the hands of Ivan Ljubicic and he's back again today to look at who our money should be on as the Madrid Masters reaches the quarter-final stage.

This year's Madrid Master Series quarterfinals is loaded with seven of the top ten players in the world. It is the fourth time this year that seven of the Top 10 players in the South African Airways ATP Rankings have reached the last eight at the same tournament.

During the 2008 season the most Top 10 players to reach the same stage was only six. It's a sign that the players at the top of the rankings are all in good form which should make for some mouth-watering clashes in the quarters.

Fortunately for Rafael Nadal and Andy Roddick, they will be well rested after both their opponents - Philipp Kohlschreiber and Nikolay Davydenko respectively - withdrew from the tournament citing leg injuries. There were however important wins for Andy Murray, who dispatched of Tommy Robredo in straight sets, and Roger Federer who avenged his defeat at the Olympics to James Blake with a comprehensive win that has improved his overall head-to-head record against the American to 9-1.

The most important win of the day for us punters however, was yesterday's tip that Ivan Ljubicic would defeat Gilles Simon. The twenty nine year old didn't disappoint and eventually won the match in three sets 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. We managed to back the Croatian pre match @ [2.0].

Today's Selections:

Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG) v Andy Murray (GBR) - The clay courts in Madrid are playing a little faster than we first imagined, the balls seem to bounce a little higher than your average clay court and at altitude travel a lot faster. Andy Murray has been his typically outspoken self about the quality of the surface and has vented his anger during his most recent win against Tommy Robredo, even though it happened to be his best performance of the year on the red dirt. Argentinian Del Potro has had less to complain about, with wins over Stanislas Wawrinka and Tomas Berdych so far at this year's event and he seems to have acclimatised far better than the young Brit.

Andy Murray has a 3-0 head-to-head advantage coming into this match, his most recent win bring back in March at the Miami Masters in which Del Potro managed to take a set. I see this match being a different proposition for the Brit on his least favoured surface against a player desperate to defeat Andy Murray for the first time in his career.

Selection: Back Juan Martin Del Potro @ 3.2 to win match
Lay Andy Murray 2-0 @ 2.17

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