Events / Sean Calvert / 24 October 2011 /

There's a a decent field in St Petersburg this week and Janko Tipsarevic may keep on winning now that he's learnt how to close out tournaments. But the better bet is to side with the big-hitting Marin Cilic.

A disappointing effort from the perplexing Alexandr Dolgopolov left us out of pocket in Moscow last week, but we move on to this week's events on the ATP Tour.

The tournaments in St Petersburg and Vienna represent the final ATP 250 events of 2011 and although I'm concentrating on the former tournament, the latter might be worth watching for nostalgic reasons.

This will, in all probability, be the last time we'll see former French Open champ, Thomas Muster, ply his trade at a Tour level event.

The 44-year-old Austrian's comeback hasn't been great, with a 2-22 record, but he plays fellow Austrian, Dominic Thiem in a first round match that surely represents a record in age disparity.

There are 26 years between the two countrymen and should Muster beat the world number 1897, he would probably play Nikolay Davydenko next.

Nostalgia aside, the Erste Bank Open looks wide open and I prefer an opportunity that has presented itself in the St Petersburg Open.

What usually happens in this sort of situation is that the player I advised the previous week - in this case Dologopolov - goes and wins a week later, so keep an eye on him in St Petersburg. But the best chance of success lies with Marin Cilic.

The lanky Croatian seems to have been around forever, but he's only just turned 23 and has time on his side to get back into the top-10 if he can add some consistency to his occasionally errant forehand wing.

Cilic has shown signs of a return to near his best this summer and autumn, culminating in a run to the final in Beijing.

A shock loss to Albert Ramos - the Spaniard's first ever win in a main draw hard-court match - in Shanghai was probably due to fatigue after his efforts in Beijing. But Cilic takes a 10-5 hard-court swing record into this week, with losses only to Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Tomas Berdych, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and Ramos.

Forgetting about Ramos for a minute, there's nothing of that calibre in St Petersburg, with number one seed Gilles Simon the highest ranked player in the world at number 12.

Cilic and Simon are drawn in the top half, which also contains Mikhail Youzhny, Ernests Gulbis, Julien Benneteau, Igor Andreev and Marcel Granollers.

But Cilic's quarter of the draw looks like it should be comfortable for him and at around [4.5], he is the bet this week.

Youzhny enjoys his visits to St Petersburg, where he has a 24-8 record and where he reached the final last year, without playing anyone inside the world's top-50.

As ever with Youzhny though, his form has peaks and troughs and the Russian hasn't reached a final since.

Granollers could be a bit of a dark horse this week at a price of around [40.0], as he has reached a final indoors before (Valencia 2010) and although his recent form is patchy, he is the type to go far if he becomes confident early on.

In the bottom half of the draw, Kremlin Cup winner Janko Tipsarevic will be popular in the betting to record a quickfire Russian double and his draw looks decent, with defending champ Mikhail Kukushkin, Dolgopolov, Jeremy Chardy, Dmitry Tursunov, Alex Bogomolov Jr and Philipp Kohlschreiber other possible finalists.

It could prove to be the case that Tipsy rides this current wave of confidence all the way to another title, but at a price of around [5] I'll look elsewhere, due to a lack of faith in the Serb's notoriously brittle body.

With two bigger events to come in the next few weeks, it's unlikely that Janko will bust a gut this week in his attempt at qualifying for the year-end championships in London.

Recommended Bet

Back Cilic at around [4.5]

Long shot

Granollers at around [40.0]

Follow Sean on Twitter @seancalvert1

'.$sign_up['title'].'

'; } } ?>

:

:

:

?

: