"19", "name" => "Tennis", "category" => "Events", "path" => "/var/www/vhosts/betting.betfair.com/httpdocs/tennis/", "url" => "https://betting.betfair.com/tennis/", "title" => "Rome Masters Tips: Promising Latvian's great run ends here : Events : Tennis", "desc" => "Ernests Gulbis has had a great week but there can only be one winner when he faces up to Rafel Nadal, says Ben Caudell...", "keywords" => "", "robots" => "index,follow" ); $category_sid = "sid=4013"; ?>

Rome Masters Tips: Promising Latvian's great run ends here

Events RSS / / 01 May 2010 /

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Nadal is looking pretty much unbeatable at the moment

Nadal is looking pretty much unbeatable at the moment

"Gulbis is going to have a torrid time staying in the rallies, which will be dominated by Nadal from he back of the court. For the Latvian to have any chance of winning a set he will have to shorten the rallies and approach the net as much as possible in the hope that Nadal will miss a few passing opportunities."

Ernests Gulbis has had a great week but there can only be one winner when he faces up to Rafel Nadal, says Ben Caudell

Ernests Gulbis (LAT) v Rafael Nadal (ESP)
The greatest player to have ever graced the red stuff appears unstoppable in his pursuit to claim his fifth title at the Rome Masters.

The master of the clay court, Nadal, since making his 2010 clay-court debut in Monte Carlo two weeks ago, is yet to drop more than six games in a match. The Spaniard's domination on this surface has been unrivalled for many years now, without his troubling knee injuries we could see yet another year that Nadal goes undefeated on his beloved surface

Today's match against Ernests Gulbis will be the third time Spaniard has played the Latvian. Nadal holds a 2-0 series lead with both matches being played in 2008, the first was played at Wimbledon and the Spaniard was triumphant recording a tightly fought match in four sets. In Madrid a few months later Gulbis managed to take another set, this time on an indoor hard court.

The promising Latvian who is only two years younger than Nadal, aged 21 is a player with a bright future ahead of him. From an early age Gulbis was targeted as a potential Grand Slam winner; however his laid back attitude and lack of fighting spirit stalled his development. This season however we are witnessing a more mature Gulbis and a player who can compete with the very best on the men's tour. For some, including me, it didn't come as a huge shock to see the Latvian power his way past No.1 Roger Federer in the second round. Gulbis has a good record on clay courts having reached the quarter-finals of Roland Garros in 2008 while Federer was playing on the surface for the first time in 2010.

Gulbis, whose serve has been his biggest weapon this week, will need to be firing once again on all cylinders. He is going to have a torrid time staying in the rallies, which will be dominated by Nadal from he back of the court. For the Latvian to have any chance of winning a set he will have to shorten the rallies and approach the net as much as possible in the hope that Nadal will miss a few passing opportunities. There is very little value in backing the Spaniard to win the match outright so I will be backing him to win comfortably by more than 5.5 games

Recommended Bets:
Back Nadal -5.5 Games @ [1.55]
Back Nadal -6.5 Games @ [2.0]
Back Under 19.5 Games @ [1.68]

Best Bet: Back Under 19.5 Games @ 1.68 (Rome Master Series Semi Final)

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