Events / Sean Calvert / 01 February 2010 /

Having showed a profit once again last week, Sean Calvert returns to the weekly grind of the ATP Tour where Fernando "Hands of stone" Gonzalez should win the Movistar Open in his hometown of Santiago.

The winners continued at the Australian Open last week, with Rainer Schuettler obliging at a handy [4.8] and Mikhail Youzhny doing the same at [2.82] in their respective first round clashes.

That's not to mention my advice to back Roger Federer at [4.0] at the start of the tournament, so all in all it was another excellent fortnight for our bank balances.

It's back to the bread and butter this week for most of the ATP Tour regulars, with the exception of the top achievers, such as Federer et al, who will be enjoying a well-earned rest.

There are three events from which to choose where your spare cash goes this week and of these, I reckon the Movistar Open in Chile is the best place to start in terms of investment.

This tournament is the first leg of the so-called 'Golden Swing' of South American clay court events, named in honour of Chile's Olympic gold medallists Fernando Gonzalez and Nicolas Massu.

The event has moved this year from its spiritual home in Vina Del Mar to a new venue in Santiago, but I would imagine that playing conditions will be more or less the same.

Gonzalez and Massu are both in the field again this year, along with four other Chileans and you've got to like the chances of Gonzo to come away with the title again.

You won't get rich with the [2.3] on offer about the world number 11, but it looks a pretty safe place to invest those Australian Open winnings.

Gonzo has won this title four times overall and is going for a third consecutive crown this year - there looks little to stop him in the field and with it being in front of his adoring home fans you know that he'll be giving 100 percent.

As far as the draw is concerned Gonzo, who showed his wellbeing in Melbourne with a decent run brought to an end in a classic by Andy Roddick, has really only Jose Acasuso and Thomaz Bellucci to concern him in his half and the Chilean should have too much in his armoury for those two.

The 29-year-old took out Acasuso in the final here last year, but the Argentine has been struggling with injury lately and is unlikely to make it that far in 2010.

In the bottom half of the draw I like the look of Pablo Cuevas to make the final at around [16.0].

The Uruguayan has made the semi finals here in the last two years and he showed some real improvement on the red dirt in 2009, where he made the semis in Hamburg, which is a higher standard than this.

He also won his last clay event - a challenger in Montevideo in his homeland - and in all Cuevas has won 18 of his last 22 red dirt matches since week 27 of last year.

This week's other two events are in Johannesburg and Zagreb and I don't really like either of them much as betting propositions.

The SA Tennis Open has attracted a really poor-looking field, with all of the players bar David Ferrer and Gael Monfils ranked outside the top 40 in the world and I won't be getting involved in that.

Over in Zagreb, the PBZ Indoor event sees home favourite Marin Cilic head a better quality field than in Jo'burg, but after Cilic's epic efforts in Melbourne I wouldn't want to risk much on him here at around [2.88] to defend his title.

The draw has paired Cilic with Ivo Karlovic, Jurgen Melzer and Evgeny Korolev and I can envisage Cilic perhaps being bundled out by a resurgent Karlovic.

I prefer the claims of another resurgent Croat - Ivan Ljubicic - and those of Janko Tipsarevic, who has shown steady improvement of late. Both are in the bottom half and look better bets at [9] and [16] respectively than short odds on Cilic.

Recommendations

Back Fernando Gonzalez outright in the Movistar Open at around [2.3]
Back to lay Pablo Cuevas outright at around [16.0]
Back Ivan Ljubicic & Janko Tipsarevic (both small stakes) outright in the PBZ Zagreb

'.$sign_up['title'].'

'; } } ?>

:

:

:

?

: