Events / Ben Caudell / 13 May 2009 /

Fresh from predicting James Blake's win over Hanescu yesterday, Ben Caudell is back to talk us through the best bets of day three on the dirt of Madrid.

Scottish world number three Andy Murray made it thirty wins so far this season after facing a tough test against Simone Bollelli winning 7-6, 6-4 in two hours and seven minutes. After prevailing in a 20 point tie-break, Murray earned the only service break in the final game of the match to secure victory over his 61st-ranked Italian oppoenent. Murray will now face clay court specialist Tommy Robredo in the third round, The Spaniard has a 2-1 head-to-head over the Murray and of course will be playing at home on his favoured surface.

There were no major upsets in yesterday's tournament as far as the men's draw went - Roger Federer cruised through to the third round with a 6-1, 7-5 win over Robin Soderling, the Swiss ace now has a 9-0 record against the Swede and is chasing his second title in Madrid after winning it in 2006.

Fernando Verdasco was another player in scintillating form, dispatching of fellow countryman Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-3, 6-2. Verdasco has reached at least the quarter finals in all seven events he has played this season and with a potential quarter final match against Rafael Nadal looming, the Madrid-born left-hander will no doubt have his work cut out in reaching the semi finals or further.

James Blake, yesterday's tip to defeat Victor Henescu, continued his recent good clay-court form with a 6-2, 6-4 victory. We managed to back the American @ [1.6]; he will now face the towering Ivo Karlovic who leads their head-to-head series 4-1

Today's Selections:

David Ferrer (ESP) v Juan Monaco (ARG) - On paper this looks to be the most intriguing match of the day. Both players possess similar clay-court games - solid from the back and equally consistent on both the forehand and backhand. We expect to witness some brilliantly executed points and tiresome long rallies that will have the crowd in rapturous applause.

Juan Monaco was given a wild card into the Madrid Masters, a decision the tournament may live to regret if he was to upset home favourite David Ferrer. The Argentine has already defeated one Spanish player in Feliciano Lopez in the first round so will have little to fear when he sets out today on the Arantxa Sanchez Vicario court.

Monaco leads Ferrer 2-1 in their head-to-heads with both being straight sets wins on clay. These two have surprisingly never played a three set match against one another so you can assume that whoever wins the first set here will go on to win the match.

Ferrer reached the final of Barcelona back in April, losing to eventual winner Rafael Nadal 6-2 7-5 but since then the Spaniard has won two and lost two. Last week in Estoril, Oscar Hernandez convincingly ousted Ferrer, a week before this Paul Henri Mathieu came out on top against the diminutive Spaniard in the first round in Rome. I therefore believe that there is definitely value in backing Juan Monaco; this will be a close match with both players wanting to prove their pedigree on the clay before the second Grand Slam of the year starts later this month in Paris.

Selection: Back Juan Monaco @ 2.6 to win match
Lay Ferrer 2-0 @ 2.58

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