Events / Sean Calvert / 20 February 2012 / 1

Roger Federer did the business for Sean last week as Milos Raonic was winning a tournament of his own over in San Jose. And it is Raonic who is worth backing again this week, as the ATP tour moves to Memphis.

Roger Federer did the business for us in Rotterdam last week, with a dominant final victory over Juan Martin Del Potro at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament.

There are two more indoor events and a clay tournament to choose from this week and the one I like the look of from a betting viewpoint, is in Memphis, USA.

Like many others, I was annoyed that I turned down the chance to back Milos Raonic in San Jose last week, after the Canadian was (as it turned out) wrongly diagnosed with a knee injury.

Raonic looked a good bet, but the supposed injury that saw him pulled from a Davis Cup rubber put me off, before. Somewhat bizarrely, it transpired that there was nothing wrong with him.

There's a chance to even things up this week though, as Milos looks a good thing to double up in the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships in the ATP 500 indoor event in Memphis.

The young prospect was unlucky here last year in losing to Andy Roddick in the final and the pair are drawn to meet again in the semi finals if both get that far, which is unlikely in Roddick's case.

A-Rod, as well as being on the decline, has also been struggling with injury and was consequently quite poor in San Jose last week. And he looks vulnerable again in a section of the draw that he should progress from, but may not.

In fact, the whole bottom section of the draw looks far weaker than the top half, and Raonic doesn't appear to have a great deal to beat on paper in his quest to follow up his San Jose win.

San Jose semi finalist Julien Benneteau could go well again and he has beaten Raonic before indoors. But my pick dished out a straight sets win over the Frenchman a fortnight ago in Davis Cup.

Other than Benneteau, Raonic could find himself in another battle with Ryan Harrison in the last eight in a rivalry that is sure to be one worth watching over the next few years.

The other high seed in the bottom half is Alex Bogomolov Jr, who has been in awful form lately and was brushed aside by Richard Gasquet in Rotterdam. It might also be interesting to see what sort of reception he gets from the American public after opting to play Davis Cup for Russia.

The top half of the draw has several candidates for the final spot though, with John Isner, Bernard Tomic, Kevin Anderson, Radek Stepanek, Donald Young, Jurgen Melzer, Denis Istomin, Ivan Dodig and Sam Querrey all with chances on their best form.

There's also the likes of James Blake, Gilles Muller and Grigor Dimitrov in the mix as well, so that half of the draw is tough to call.

For that reason, Raonic's much more straightforward route to the final means that his price isn't fantastic at around [3.8], but this is his time of year, with the indoor courts suiting the Canadian's game, and he can go one better than 2011.

Fellow young gun Tomic will be looking to improve upon his woeful record on indoor hard this week and his price of around [15.0] doesn't appeal for the simple reason that in his last four events in these conditions he's lost to Flavio Cipolla, Michael Lammer, Nicolas Mahut and Gael Monfils.

The Monfils result aside, that's some dreadful form and his only two wins on indoor hard have come against Jurgen Zopp and Ze Zhang, so despite Tomic's efforts in Melbourne, this is different and better value perhaps lies with Anderson.

The big South African has been showing steady improvement on indoor hard lately and his quarter looks the easiest in the top half, with Stepanek, Blake, Querrey and Ryan Sweeting the opposition.

Isner is a former finalist here and is a big danger at around [5.5] but he does have the toughest quarter of the draw and is yet to win a tournament on indoor hard.

His win over Federer in the Davis Cup should obviously help and he is yet to face Raonic in his career, so a final between the pair would be worth watching.

But I'm going to stick with Milos, as the man in-form, with conditions to suit and a hunger for titles.

Recommended Bet

Back Raonic at around [3.8]

Follow Sean on Twitter @seancalvert1

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1. HKK | 20 February 2012

   3.8 is solid value on Milos who should have no trouble getting to the SF. I like this pick A LOT more than your Garica-Lopez couple weeks ago :P lol

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