Monte Carlo Masters Tips: Back the old boys on day one

Events / Sean Calvert / 16 April 2012 /

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Can Radek Stepanek get us off to a winning start this week?

"Jarkko Nieminen has lost five of his last six matches versus top-50 opponents and at around [1.6] Stepanek is a decent bet to get off to a winning start in Monte Carlo

A 30-something is the headline selection on the first day of the Monte Carlo Masters for Sean Calvert

The Monte Carlo Rolex Masters begins in earnest on Monday at the opulent Monte Carlo Country Club and Sky Sports begin their coverage of the tournament today.

I like the look of a number of first round matches and the first of my selections involves two of the elder statesmen of the ATP Tour.

Radek Stepanek cemented his position as one of the most abrasive and unpopular players on tour with an ill-tempered Davis Cup loss to Janko Tipsarevic on clay last time out, but he should have too much for fellow 30-something Jarkko Nieminen today.

Stepanek held match points in that five-set clash with Tipsarevic and anything like that level again today will see him improve upon his 6-3 overall head-to-head lead against the Finn.

The Czech has won all three of their encounters on the clay and he's the classier operator on the dirt compared with Nieminen, who hasn't played on the surface this year and has been beaten by the likes of Eduard Roger Vasselin, Dudi Sela, Yen Hsun Lu and Tommy Haas in his last four events.

The Finn has lost five of his last six matches versus top-50 opponents and at around [1.6] Stepanek is a decent bet to get off to a winning start in Monte Carlo.

My second bet today is a bit more risky, but it could pay to side with Denis Istomin against Bernard Tomic at odds of around [1.86].

The money has come in for Istomin in this match, as Tomic was originally priced up as favourite, but the odds have now turned around.

Tomic has an appalling record on the red dirt, with just two wins in his entire career at Tour and Challenger level - and those were against Adrians Zguns and Rui Machado.

At the French Open last year, Tomic was beaten in straight sets by Carlos Berlocq and with that kind of record I'm not sure how he was initially rated as favourite against Istomin today.

The Uzbekistan player is no world beater on clay either, but at least he's been playing on the dirt recently, when he helped his country defeat India in Davis Cup recently and he has far more experience than Tomic, who hasn't played on dirt since that loss to Berlocq at Roland Garros.

Tomic has won the one match played between the pair, which was on hard in Australia, but this will be a very different occasion and Istomin should prove to be the value today.

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