Events / Sean Calvert / 03 November 2008 /

A rested Ana Ivanovic is back to her best after appearing to struggle under the pressure of being world number one, says Sean Calvert. Will you back her at this week's Sony Ericsson Championships?

It was back to the green figures again last week as David Nalbandian's surge to the final in Paris made it a profitable week overall.

The Argentine's last gasp effort to make it to Shanghai saw him come in from [36.0] to [1.71] and fortunately I was wise enough to lay my investment off before Jo Wilfried Tsonga pipped Nalbandian at the post for both the title and a place at next week's Masters Cup.

It could have been so much better had I not opted for Gilles Simon just ahead of Tsonga for the best outsider berth, but such is life.

So that's it for the ATP Tour this season, other than the Masters Cup, therefore attention turns to the WTA end of season jamboree, the Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha.

This event has been the sole preserve of Justine Henin for the last couple of years, with the diminutive Belgian dominating proceedings and without such a supreme force in the current women's game, this is very tough to predict.

The tournament begins with a round robin phase, where the eight players are split into two groups and the winner and runner-up in each group goes forward to the semi-finals.

This year's groupings, which incidentally are named the White and the Purple groups in honour of the flag of Qatar, sees the Williams sisters drawn together along with Russians Dinara Safina and Elena Dementieva in the Maroon section.

The White section has Serbians Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic along with the remaining Russians, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Vera Zvonareva and this looks the weakest group.

Jankovic lost all three of her round robin matches in this event last year and the number one seed looks a lay at around the [4.5] mark.

She has had a fantastic year of course, but after 80 tour matches this campaign and a first round defeat to Flavia Pennetta in her last event in Zurich, her fitness must be questioned and although she may make the semis out of a weak group, the value lies elsewhere.

Another in the group who is both in poor form and also lost all three of her matches in this event last year is Sveta Kuznetsova and after dropping out of the top five in a year when she should have been pressing for number one after Henin's retirement makes 2008 a poor year for Sveta and she is readily overlooked at around [17.0].

Injuries have meant that Ana Ivanovic has played only 51 matches this year though and she makes considerably more appeal than the others in the White Group.

After appearing to struggle under the burden of expectancy as world number one earlier in the year, Ivanovic seems to be getting back to her best at the right time as far as this event is concerned and she warmed up nicely by winning in Austria last week.

She displayed her liking for this tournament by reaching the semis last year before losing to Henin and at around [2.88] she is a decent bet to win the group and at [7.0] Ivanovic is just about the best bet for the tournament.

Zvonareva meanwhile has done well just to qualify for this, but she doesn't have the class to emerge from the group stages and is rightfully the outsider at [17].

The betting for the Maroon group, which looks far tougher, is headed by the Williams sisters with Serena the favourite at [2.25] ahead of Venus at [2.6] and this seems a little short to me considering the fact that neither sister has won this event since 2001.

In fact, they rarely enter it and Serena in particular has a poor record with injuries in the tournament and both are passed over for the group win and for the outright win at [5.5] and [7.5] respectively.

Dinara Safina has had a fine year, but looks another to be wilting a bit towards the end and her poor head-to-head record against the Williams sisters leaves Elena Dementieva the bet at a huge [7] to take the group and a decent back to lay shout at [12] for the title.

The occasionally fragile Russian warmed up for this nicely by justifying favouritism in Luxembourg last week and in one of those bizarre WTA matches that Dementieva often seems to get involved in, she hammered Jankovic 6-0 in the first set of their semi in Moscow the week previous before winning just one of the next 13 games.

That's Dementieva though and backing her is a sure fire way to raise your blood pressure as she takes you on a roller coaster ride of brilliance and sheer ineptitude in equal measure.

So, the value bets for the Sony Ericsson Championships 2008 are back to lay punts on Ana Ivanovic and Elena Dementieva for the title outright and Ivanovic to win the White Group.

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