Clay court tennis steps up a gear this week as the majority of ATP Tour players descend on the picturesque backdrop of Monte Carlo for the first of three ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments to be played on the red stuff. Despite the famous principality not being a mandatory event for the players, many of the top names have seen this event as a perfect starting point for preparation ahead of Roland Garros which is now only six short weeks away. Indeed Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, and the imperious Rafael Nadal have all opted to participate this year, with the latter of the trio looking for his NINTH consecutive success here.
A brief review of last week’s selections and the ever-combustible Frenchman Benoit Paire could not advance past the last eight in Casablanca, losing in three sets to Tommy Robredo who himself finds himself back in an ATP final for the first time in what seems like an eternity. Over in Houston, 2/1 shot Nicolas Almagro went into Sunday’s final against John Isner as a 1.29 favourite and I was hopeful he’d be classy enough on his favoured surface to see off surprise finalist Isner. It wasn’t to be however as Isner pulled off a straight sets win against Almagro, much to the Spaniard’s disgust.
ATP Monte Carlo
Rafael Nadal has dominated Monte Carlo in a way otherwise unseen in men’s tennis and it’s almost impossible to look past the greatest player ever to grace a clay court. With Novak Djokovic seemingly having a spot of bother with an ankle injury sustained on Davis Cup duty for Serbia last weekend and Andy Murray having a particularly poor record on the dirt against the game’s best, just who is going to beat Nadal this week? In all honesty, nobody in my opinion. He’s head and shoulders above the rest of the field and should (injury pending) make it nine wins in Monte Carlo. At 4/7 though, he’s unappealing value-wise in the extreme and we should look elsewhere for a spot of ‘back to lay’ value, particularly in the opposite side of the draw to Rafa.
Seventh seed Richard Gasquet looks to have been dealt a fairly decent draw and occupies the space the absent Roger Federer may have found himself in and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Frenchman benefit from this. Back in the world’s top 10, Gasquet already has two titles to his name in 2013 (Doha and Montpellier) and can boast some useful form at this event. A record of 12-7 is respectable enough and with a memorable victory against Federer in 2005 (followed by a 3-set defeat to Rafael Nadal), Gasquet will know he can go deep this week. Another seeded player in Gasquet’s section is Tomas Berdych and whilst not an easy man to defeat, Gasquet has a positive 5-3 head-to-head record over Berdych. I wouldn’t suggest for a second that Gasquet is a bet for victory this week but an attractive price of between 33/1 and 40/1 simply can’t be ignored as a ‘back to lay’ proposition.
Selection: Richard Gasquet
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