04/01/08 Full Card
ATP Adelaide: Michael Llodra (FRA) vs Benjamin Becker (GER) - Today, 06:30 GMT
Michael Llodra continues to show this week how much he likes to play on Australia and he has already defeated two of the most promising players in the circuit in here: Gilles Simon and Evgueni Korolev, without dropping a set. Llodra is experienced and every time he has been in troubles to hold his serve, he is serving a lot of aces, showing that he has been capable of holding the pressure of being in a middle of a close matchup. This will be another very hard match for him and the fact that he comes from two very competitive matches will give him an advantage over Becker today. Llodra's lefty serve & volley is being very effective this week and with confidence, Llodra is nearly unbreakable in this type of environment.
Benjamin Becker is playing well, but he is going to fight against a big handicap today: he hates to play against left handed players. Last season he went 0-3 (0-6 in sets) against Top 100 left handed players outside clay. Also in the first round of this tournament, he barely defeated the left handed wild carder Robert Smeets, who is far from the level of Llodra, especially in terms of serve. Becker has already played a big lefty server recently (Mischa Zverev) and he was easily defeated by 6:3 7:5. Becker doesn't have a nice record of this country, unlike Llodra and his serve usually lets him down in the most important points of the match.
If Llodra is capable of taking advantage of the problems Becker has in playing left handed players, then he has a great shot to win in here. The French is serving an average of 63% first serves in (Becker is only at 54% this week), which is amazing for a big server like him. If he is capable of continuing today close to this number, then he will get this one. Take Llodra in here.
Play 1* unit on Michael Llodra to win @ -109
ATP Chennai: Xavier Malisse (BEL) vs Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) - Today, 14:30 GMT
Xavier Malisse looks to be close to his best right now, especially on his serve. He is yet to be broken in here and actually, he is yet to concede a single break point to his opponents in here. He is defending the title and he looks clearly ready to take the challenge until the final day. The Belgian is very experienced and talented on this surface and he has defeated Youzhny on this surface in the last two times they have faced each other. The injuries look to be history right now and Malisse is playing like a Top 30 player again.
Mikhail Youzhny is struggling a lot this week and he is yet to understand how he was capable of recovering from 0:5* in the first set against Vasselin to get the set by 7:5. Youzhny is alternating world class tennis with crap tennis and if that was enough to beat Vanek and Vasselin, that won't be enough to even make his match against Malisse close. Youzhny is being extremely error prone this week and his serve is being weak and easily attackable. That's not a good thing when Malisse is yet to face a break point on his serve this week.
Malisse is a horrible matchup for Youzhny, especially when the Russian seems to be out of shape. Malisse is playing very well this week and he has a great shot to reach the semi finals in here, at least.
Play 1* unit on Xavier Malisse to win @ -118
Small plays:
Play 0,5 units on Carlos Moya to win 2-0 against Florent Serra @ -125
Good luck!