Lots of great action this week (2/8/10 – 2/15/10) so lets
get right down to it.
SAP Open – San Jose, California
Dudi Sela (-160) vs. Santiago Giraldo (+120) – 2/8/10
12:30PM EST
The top ranked Isreali, Sela at 46, takes on Columbian up an
comer Santiago Giraldo who sits near his career high ranking of 93 (at
95).
Santiago Giraldo surprised many people when he eliminated
Tommy Robredo in the opening round of the AO. Prior to ’10 Giraldo largely played in Challenger
matches. He favors hard court
though he played most of his ITF Futures career on clay with a winning
record.
Sela has not done anything impressive to this point in ’10. He lost early as a favorite in the AO
to Sergeyev and was bounced quickly by Julien Benneteau in Brisbane.
Giraldo is on the improve and is young and dynamic. Sela hasn’t shown anything special yet
this season and is always capable of losing to a player he should
outclass. I like the dog again
here.
Selection – Giraldo (+120)
Leonardo Mayer (+120) vs. Earnests Gulbis (-160) – 2/8/10 3rd on Center Court, Approx. 3:30PM EST
Latvian Gulbis has been falling in the rankings since his
career high of 38 in the Summer of ’08 and seeks to put a stop to the fall here
in San Jose. Argentine Mayer is
near his career high ranking of 58, in search of his first title.
Gulbis actually played well in Doha, beating Albert Montanes
who found form therafter and Andreas Seppi before being shown the door by
Federer in the quarterfinals. Against Federer he stole a set despite double faulting 7 times and only
winning 33% of second serve points. In the AO Gulbis lost a terrible opening
round match to Juan Monaco.
Mayer has also had a good start to the ’10 season. He dutifully marched to the
quarterfinal in Sydney and also lost in the first round of the AO.
If Gulbis was completely on form he would be the pick here,
but absent evidence that he is the match is more of a coin toss. In such a scenario, I’ll go with the
dog.
Selection – Mayer (+120)
Michael Russell (+150) vs. Mardy Fish (-200) – 2/9/10 Time
TBA
American clay specialist Russell is ranked 74 and seeks to
better that by beating the big serving Mardy Fish who was once ranked as high
as 17 and currently sits at 58.
Russell, who is 31, is questionably a world tour caliber
player. He blew through a
Challenger tournament to start the year and stole a set from world number 5 in
his opening round loss in the AO reflecting well on his ability. However his career win loss on tour is
31/73, that is less than 30%!
Fish, who was once an American hope to break into the top 10
has had a respectable start to the year. He was defeated twice by returning player Marcos Baghdatis, once in
Brisbane and again in Sydney. Each of those matches Fish held his own, losing
one 7-5, 7-5 and the other in a third set tie-break.
Mardy has his serve working, acing Baggy over 15 times in
the three set match. He has the experience,
prefers the surface and is slightly more spry. Gonna give this one to the Floridian.
Selection – Fish (-200)