Schwartzman plus big-servers exit on day one
There was disappointment on day one with our quarter pick, Diego Schwartzman, failing to convert two match points and also failing to serve out for the match in set five against Cameron Norrie in one of the shocks of the day, in an incredible match featuring 58 break points. Another big name to exit was John Isner, who won two of the three (rather predictable) tiebreaks in his match with Steve Johnson but losing in a fifth-set breaker. A further big-server to exit the tournament was Reilly Opelka, who was ousted by David Goffin.
Action gets underway at 1600 UK time, and as with today's women's schedule, there looks to be some caveats with the value spots. One of these is James Duckworth, who on data looks absurdly priced at 2.9015/8 against Salvatore Caruso, but the Australian hasn't been seen on court since winning the Bengaluru Challenger event in mid-February.
O'Connell potentially some value over clay-courter Djere
Another Australian who looks some model value is Christopher O'Connell at around 1.654/6 but again, there's possibly a reason for that - he retired last time out in an exhibition in America at the start of July. However, opponent Laslo Djere has also had some fitness issues in lockdown, retiring in a clay exhibition in Serbia a month ago, and was easily beaten in the first round of qualies last week for the Western & Southern Open.
If we treat the two players on their individual hard court merits, O'Connell would be the pick - given that Djere really struggled in his only match back after that injury, winning just 37% of points against Marcos Giron in that defeat, I'm tempted to side with O'Connell for today's recommendation, but it does have that caveat. In the absence of much better, I'll go with it, but as with all the first round matches here, it's an extremely cautious one. In all honesty, I can't wait for round two - at least all players will have won a match by that point and we can evaluate their data from those victories.
Ruusuvuori can continue career progression
In other matches, Emil Ruusuvuori looks tempting as a slight 2.0621/20 underdog for his match against Aljaz Bedene, with the Finn having magnificent data from the Challenger Tour. It will be interesting to see how this plays out, with Bedene having a big edge in experience, but Ruusuvuori having the raw talent.
I'm also not sure about the fitness of Ivo Karlovic, and perhaps using the market for his match against Richard Gasquet tells us all we need to know. The Frenchman, Gasquet, is 1.141/7 for their encounter, which looks ridiculously short - he's hardly at the peak of his career himself - and the big-serving Karlovic could well extend Gasquet here.
Murray among big names in action
We also see Andy Murray in action today, and the Scotsman looks accurately priced at 1.444/9 against Yoshihito Nishioka, while the likes of Daniil Medvedev and last week's finalist Milos Raonic are also in action. Finally, returning to the main tour after over a three-year absence is Andrey Kuznetsov. It's impossible to know the level of the Russian after such a long lay-off, and I actually thought he had retired at one point, but opponent Sam Querrey - not close to peak level himself either - is priced as a heavy favourite at 1.141/7 on the Exchange at the time of writing.
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Recommended bets
Back Christopher O'Connell at around 1.654/6 to beat Laslo Djere