Men's French Open Betting: Haas to go down fighting against Djokovic

5Jun 2013

Roland Garros

World number one Novak Djokovic is in action today against veteran Tommy Haas in the quarter finals of the 2013 French Open and Sean Calvert is of the view that Haas will at least put up some resistance in this one...

I said yesterday that Tommy Robredo's only real chance against David Ferrer was to start well and he was unable to do that and suffered the consequences.

It was always a tall order for Robredo to be competitive after so many long struggles in previous rounds, but I was right in my suggestion that he'd win more games in set one than any other and that set three would be over in less than 9.5 games. Unfortunately, I chose the wrong wager of the two.

On Court Philippe Chatrier there was another straight sets win, but this one was much more unexpected, as the home crowd delighted in a 3-0 victory for Jo-Wilfried Tsonga over an out of sorts Roger Federer.

Tsonga played a good match, but Federer was simply awful, spraying the ball to all parts of Chatrier and seemingly unable to make a rally last more than a few shots without shanking or hitting long or wide.

Today's men's quarter finals are priced like they may also be straight sets fodder, with Novak Djokovic taking on my remaining outside bet in this tournament, 35- year-old Tommy Haas.

At least the German has made a good back-to-lay investment at 600.0 down to 120.0 and it wouldn't be a monumental shock if he were to push Djokovic close today.

Haas played a great match to stun Djokovic last time they met in Miami a few months ago on slow hard courts and their overall record in competitive matches is 4-3 to Djokovic, with their only meeting on clay coming here at Roland Garros back in 2006.

This is clay though and Tommy has reached the last eight here in Paris for the first time at the age of 35 and as much as I would love him to win today it seems to me that the best he can realistically achieve would be to take a set or maybe two.

Djokovic has said how much he now wants to win this tournament for his childhood coach and "second mother" who died this week and the last thing that Haas needs is a Nole on a mission.

That said, he wasn't great at all against another German, Philipp Kohlschreiber, in the fourth round and with more self-belief Kohlschreiber could have been looking at a two set lead in that match.

Haas has more about both his game and certainly his strength of mind than Kohlschreiber and if gets such an opportunity I would like to think that he would take it.

The winner of the first set has gone on to win the match in all of their previous meetings and it's vital that Tommy gets off to a flyer, but my feeling on this is that Novak will end up winning by three sets to one, which can be backed at around 3.85.

Recommended Bet
Back Djokovic to beat Haas 3-1 at 3.85