Rogers Cup Day One Tips: Ready to rock?

Events / Ben Caudell / 09 August 2010 /

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Philipp Petzschner - a player on the up

"Today’s match has all the makings of a three set epic."

On day one in Toronto, Ben Caudell considers the prospects of two players who have made big strides this year...

Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR) v Philipp Petzschner (GER)

The sixth ATP World Tour Master Series 1000 event of the season gets underway in Toronto today with the Rogers Cup featuring 17 of the top 20 players in the world. The stellar field is led by Rafael Nadal and includes two inform players, Alexandr Dolgopolov and Philipp Petzschner, who have made big strides up the world rankings so far this year.

Dolgopolov's ultimate aim is to become the number one ranked player in the world. He's moved from a ranking of 131 in the world to a high of 39, his best results have undoubtedly come on the clay and he's beaten the likes of Fernando Gonzalez, Andreas Seppi, Albert Montanes and Mardy Fish.

Petzschner has made similar strides, moving from 81 in the rankings to a current 41. Having had an impressive start to the year and a respectable clay and grass court season, the German No.2 will be looking to rekindle the form he showed during his loss to Rafael Nadal at this year's All England Championships where he took the champion to five sets.

Today's contest is evenly matched on all fronts, both Dolgopolov and Petzschner have identical year-to-date statistics on serve and return of serve and have similar win/loss records from their last 10 matches. Dolgopolov is 6-4 compared with Petzschner's 5-5.

It might be worth factoring into the equation that the German has withdrawn with injury from three tournaments since April. However, he recently posted optimistically on Twitter "Feeling the ball really well on my racket...playing Dolgopolov could be worse!" In a more recent post he stated that he was feeling good and was ready to rock.

Of the two, I believe that Petzschner is better suited to the American hard courts. The Ukrainian's lack of experience in America, and the fact that his last hard court match was a loss against Thiago Alves in Johannesburg in February of this year, gives me more reason to side with the German. Today's match is their first against one another and has all the makings of a three set epic. It's worth considering a small bet on Petzschner to win in three sets at a tasty [4.70].

Selection: Back Philipp Petzschner @ [1.8] to win match
Back Petzschner 2-1 @ [4.7] (Small bet)

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