Events / Sean Calvert / 28 March 2010 /

Andy may be out but there are still plenty of betting opportunities to entice tennis punters in Miami. Sean Calvert selects his Sunday best.

I said in my Miami tournament preview that the big four were all struggling at the moment, but I didn't expect two of them to get knocked out in the first round!

Andy Murray's poor recent run continued as he was dumped out by the unpredictable Mardy Fish in straight sets on Saturday and the Scot needs to go back to the drawing board on the evidence of the last couple of weeks.

As far as our bets were concerned it was a good day for Wawrinka backers as he cruised past Kevin Anderson in straight sets, but Janko Tipsarevic is clearly still struggling with that rib injury, as he was beaten by Phillip Petzschner.

There appear to be lots of great betting opportunities today, following a tricky few days, and I can see several matches that look well worth getting involved in.

In the opening match Nicolas Almagro should be too strong for Jeremy Chardy and looks value at around [1.8]. The Spaniard has had injury concerns lately, but then again when hasn't Almagro had injury niggles and he played and won in the doubles yesterday so he can't be that bad.

He has been playing well on hard courts in 2010, reaching the fourth round at Indian Wells and in Melbourne, whereas Chardy has had a poor year. His best has been a third round effort at Delray Beach and a loss to Stefan Koubek at the Sunrise Challenger doesn't inspire confidence.

Outsider of the day has to be Olivier Rochus to beat Thomaz Bellucci at around [2.62]. The little Belgian is playing really well right now as his win over an admittedly out of sorts Novak Djokovic proved.

The Mighty Atom also beat Bellucci, who is more at home on clay, in their only meeting so far - on indoor hard at the end of last year - and he could be value today.

David Ferrer looks a cracking bet at [1.67] to put Ivo Karlovic out of his misery. The Spaniard has already beaten one serving machine easily here. His 6-2, 6-4 win over Michael Llodra proves how tough Miami is for the big servers and Karlovic is ripe for the taking after struggling through his first ever win here against Daniel Gimeno-Traver.

Ferrer also won the only meeting between he and Karlovic in straight sets on a hard court and that result could be the call again at [2.66] as he should get plenty of looks at the big man's serve in these conditions.

Finally, Tommy Robredo should be more than capable of a straight sets win over Benjamin Becker, who has no right being in the third round of a Masters Series event and is only here because Ivan Ljubicic retired whilst giving the German a sound beating.

Robredo beat Becker 6-2, 6-1 on hard at the end of last season and, after reaching the quarters at Indian Wells, should be all over the German today and the [2.22] about a 2-0 Robredo win should be considered.

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