I can’t say I was overcome with shock on Sunday afternoon when Rafael Nadal recovered from an early first set deficit against 12/1 column tip Nicolas Almagro to secure his eighth Barcelona title. It seems that currently Novak Djokovic is the only player on tour that can live with Nadal on the dirt but it remains to be seen whether he can sustain such a performance over the longer five set format. I personally managed to balance my book up a little when Almagro burst out of the blocks and into a 3-0 lead in the first set but that’s about as good as it got for him, with Nadal recovering to emerge victorious 6-4 6-3 in a shade over 90 minutes.
Elsewhere in Bucharest, it was slightly ironic to see Lukas Rosol secure his first ATP tour title on the same day as Nadal, considering Rosol’s sensational victory over the Spaniard at Wimbledon last year. Column pick Mikhail Youzhny suffered an early elimination at the hands of Victor Hanescu, meaning he was ultimately unable to build on a promising enough defeat to Novak Djokovic in Monte Carlo the week before.
If clay court tennis is your thing, the next seven days should be right up your street with more action on the red stuff with events in Germany and Portugal, headed by Janko Tipsarevic at the former and David Ferrer at the latter.
ATP Munich
The BMW Open is the first of five tournaments on the 2013 ATP World Tour calendar, contested in Bavaria’s picturesque capital of Munich. Defending champion Philipp Kohlschreiber returns for a tilt at a third Munich title and whilst Germany are particularly well represented this year, Kohlschreiber is the only ‘home’ winner of the event since Michael Stich back in 1994 but in Kohlschreiber himself, along with Tommy Haas and Florian Mayer, I’d say they have a pretty good chance of enjoying similar success in 2013.
Fresh off the back of a semi final appearance in Barcelona, Kohlschreiber will fancy himself this week to make a decent attempt at defending his title in his homeland and a strong case can be made for him. A quick glance at last year’s semi finalists throws up names like Tommy Haas, Marin Cilic, Kohlschreiber, and Feliciano Lopez, all of whom I’d tend to associate with serves on the quick side, leading me to think conditions may not be as slow as clay sometimes can be. It’s for that reason, coupled with his tournament form that Tommy Haas is my pick this week. Despite his advancing years, Haas has enjoyed somewhat of a rejuvenation in recent months, returning to German number one and finding himself ranked as the world number fourteen coming into this week. He reached the final here in 2000 but hasn’t won the event in nine previous attempts. My hope is that it is tenth time lucky for Haas who should have benefited from sitting out the last three weeks. A slight concern is Haas’ lack of clay court tennis in 2013 but should the conditions prove as speedy as I feel they may be, the transition shouldn’t take someone of Haas’ experience too long to adapt to. He should be refreshed and hungry to confirm his place at the head of the German tennis table and if he can overcome a tricky looking second round match against either Ernests Gulbis or Jarkko Nieminen, the last four looks to be a minimum expectation for the man from Hamburg. In terms of a likely price, I’ve heard mentions of 7/1 being available and I’d be more than happy to take that.
Selection: Tommy Haas
ATP Oeiras
The second event on the ATP World Tour this week comes from the Portugal Open which is played in Oeiras. My initial thought was that this was a new event on the circuit having not heard of Oeiras previously. It transpires it is actually the event won by Juan Martin Del Potro in Estoril the past two years and the locations remains unchanged. As far as the name change goes, I haven’t a clue why!
I don’t think I’m wide of the mark when I say David Ferrer wouldn’t have accepted a wildcard entry this week had he not have succumbed to a rather surprising defeat to Dmitry Tursunov in Barcelona last week and the rusty nature of his general play must have been alarming to him and fans alike. Knowing how successful Ferrer tends to be at these lower level events on the tour though, he simply can’t be overlooked, particularly as I have heard from one or two people that he may be available at a price of odds against once prices become available. I simply can’t ignore the price and with no Rafael Nadal to contend with, Ferrer should sweep all before him to seal his 21st career title and his third of 2013. The likes of Benoit Paire, Tommy Robredo, and Stanislas Wawrinka won’t make things easy for the Spaniard but I think we’ll see a different David Ferrer this week in Portugal than we did in Spain last week.
Selection: David Ferrer
Follow Chris on Twitter @cdquinn86
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