Sunday, May 20th, 2012
The US Open Tennis Men’s Last 16 get underway today. Without Andy Murray, is there anything to stop a Rafa-R0ger final?
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Federer (1/18 with Paddy Power) v Melzer (12/1 with Boylesports)
Soderling (1/14 with Stan James) v Montanes (10/1 with Boylesports)
Djokovic (1/3 with Paddy Power) v Fish (29/10 with Boylesports)
Gasquet (4/5 with BWin) v Monfils (23/20 with Boylesports)
Today’s four matches offer what should be two straightforward wins and two contests that are much more difficult to call. It’s impossible to see Roger Federer losing to Jurgen Melzer, though the Austrian is far from hopeless. He’s shown much improved hard court form after disappointing Masters series performances.
Clay court specialist Albert Montanes got a break last time round when opponent Kei Nishikori retired. Opponent Robin Soderling should have enough of an all round game to defeat the Spaniard.
Now at the start of the fortnight, we’d have been looking a Novak Djokovic versus Mardy Fish with real fascination. Few players have impressed more on the hard courts than Fish – until the US Open, where he was taken to 5 sets by Jan Hajek and Arnaud Clement. Djokovic will be made to work but an upset doesn’t quite seem on here.
Finally, Gasquet v Monfils. Two French players who are capable of wildly varying levels of play. Monfils was surprisingly rated the outsider in his last round match with Janko Tipsarevic, while Gasquet has been impressive in beating Nikolay Davydenko and Kevin Anderson. He’s the best bet today at 4/5 with BWin – who normally go for shorter prices on favourites.