| Jo-Wilfried Tsonga | -189 |
| Richard Gasquet | +325 |
| Gilles Simon | +750 |
| Gael Monfils | +800 |
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So we start 2013 with Tsonga ranked 8th. Gasquet 10th off perhaps a career year. Simon 16th & Monfils 77th. Tsonga ranked between 6th and 8th all of 2012, Gasquet worked from 19th to 10th. Simon from 12th to 16th. Tsonga hasn't been lowest since August 11th and has Roger Rasheed as his new coach. Simon & Tsonga are both 28. Gasquet & Monfils are 26. Cannot see beyond Tsonga or Gasquet as the top two Frenchman by the end of the season. Gasquet has been a slow starter and doesn't have a lot of points to defend early, so a hot streak any time before the Summer really could boost him inside the Top 10. Tsonga has Champions points to defend right away in Doha. Thinking about a unit on Gasquet and half a unit on Tsonga which would yield about a -0.5 unit loss if he finishes higher. Really cannot fathom Simon pushing high enough to beat either guy and Monfils would have to be both healthy and steady to even sniff the stratosphere of the other two. -
Intelligent bets and I would agree. Simon isn't a consistent menace throughout the year, he goes through patches. Monfils is too injury prone and will take a good few months before getting into full gear.
Wasn't Jo having some sort of heart trouble towards the end of last season though? Or was that all media nonsense?Comment -
Don't recall that. I do know he was banged up quite a bit towards the end I think with arm ailments - of course that's kind of Tennis 101 for guys at the end of the year if they don't manage their bodies/tournaments well. Intertops has several bets like this for Russian, American, South American, German & Australian. The other one which intrigues me is the Australian one ..
Matosevic starts the year ranked highest @ 49th. Tomic is 52nd. Hewitt is 83rd. Ebden is 105. Tomic seems like the absolute sucker bet here. Boatload of talent, head full of rocks. He might put it together at some point and realize his potential, but he hasn't shown any consistency in the past 18 months or so. He might win a title and then not make the quarters of the next five tournaments. Matosevic is an interesting study. Rafter banished him from the Aussie National Team and he responded last year with his best season. If you look at his 2012 as a whole, there's nothing overly impressive. He won Delray Beach to boost his ranking about 45 spots. Made the LA semis and had a couple big runs at Challengers. Delray Beach is likely to be where his ranking stays solid or tanks. The field there is usually not overly strong, so if he plays - he should be able to defend a lot of those points. Hewitt is the Wild Card to me. Reports are that he's in the best shape he's been in to start a season in about two years. No questioning his desire, it's always been his body holding up. If he manages himself well - I can see him making a run as the top Aussie player. He's not going to have hardly anything to defend, so anything he does in the way of deep runs is going to catapult his ranking up quickly. Ebden to me seems too far off in ranking and talent to cut his ranking in half over the course of a year to make a run at this - especially when you consider he rose to #72 last year and steadily dropped the remainder of the season. Thinking a unit on Matosevic and a unit on Hewitt - hoping one of them finishes highest and you profit.Bernard Tomic -161 Marinko Matosevic +300 Lleyton Hewitt +450 Mathew Ebden +800
The other one I am looking at ... South American ...
Bellucci is 33rd. Berlocq the next highest at 66. Mayer is 71. Nalbandian at 82. Bellucci was up down and all-around last year - as high as 87, but he worked his ranking back down to 33 - just a couple spots from where he started 2012. He's a flake for sure, but since the beginning of 2010, his ranking consistency is marvelous. He stays in the low 30s or high 20s. Berlocq was a guy who made a big run in the Spring into the 30s and then regressed. He has some big points to defend in Chile in the South American clay swing. Nalbandian went from 40ish to the low 80s and seems tough to bank on with health and age. Mayer seems content to be what he is and that doesn't lend itself to a big rankings push. This one seems a solid shot to go with Bellucci.Thomaz Belucci -154 David Nalbandian +275 Carlos Berlocq +550 Leonardo Mayer +1000 Comment