Queen's Club Betting: Mahut to prove a tough test for Murray

12Jun 2013

ATP Új

Tennis expert Sean Calvert began the grass court swing in fine style with a hat-trick of winners yesterday and he likes the chances of Nicolas Mahut to push Andy Murray all the way at Queen's Club today..

It was a perfect start to the grass court swing for this column on Tuesday, with three winning bets at the 2013 Aegon Championships.

Benjamin Becker continued the miserable run of Bernard Tomic by defeating the Aussie in three sets to land a nice odds against winner and Feli Lopez came back from a set down to set up my multiple, which was completed with the minimum of fuss by Nicolas Mahut.

In the final match of a stop/start day due to rain the Xavier Malisse vs Juan Martin Del Potro match went exactly as I expected and despite landing a winner by laying Delpo 2-0 I was incredulous at how my 500.0 outright tip managed to throw away sets one and particularly three.

The X-Man was a break up twice in set three and 0-40 ahead at 5-5 and somehow choked away eight straight points to lose the match.

Wednesday sees the entrance to the tournament of Andy Murray, who faces a repeat of last year's clash with Mahut and having lost to the Frenchman last year the Scot clearly could have hoped for a simpler start to the event.

The Scot should be on court at around 2.30 to 3pm weather permitting, but the forecast is for showers and it could be another of those annoying on/off days, similar to yesterday.

Assuming he gets on it has to be worth siding with Mahut in this, as it's the same situation as last year - Murray's first match on grass after a pretty poor clay campaign and this time he may well be struggling with injury. Either way he's out of match practice and 1.13 is a crazy price to be backing the Brit at in these circumstances.

Murray has struggled with Mahut in the majority of their meetings and again the Frenchman has had the benefit of a previous match here in these conditions, so it's asking a lot for Murray to come out an win as easily as the odds suggest.

The serve/volleying Frenchman gets a +4.5 game start on the handicap and that looks good to me at a price of around 1.8. He should be tough to break on these greasy, damp, early season courts.

Fellow Brit Dan Evans faces a tricky task at the hands of crafty Finn Jarkko Nieminen whose win over Ryan Harrison tends to suggest that he's not unduly affected by the elbow injury he was struggling with prior to this tournament.

But Nieminen hasn't been past the second round of any tournament on grass since 2007 and if Evans plays his best he can test the Finn and make it tough for the more experienced man.

Evans had no problems dealing with a lefty in round one here when he dismissed Guido Pella and although this is clearly a step up from that in terms of a more experienced grass court opponent, Nieminen's record on grass makes him vulnerable. Backing the Brit +3.5 games at a price of around 2.1 looks the best bet in that match.

Another favourite who may be vulnerable today first up is Kevin Anderson, who withdrew from the doubles with a shoulder injury and combined with his poor record on grass it's worth siding with big serving opponent Kenny de Schepper on the handicap.

De Schepper reached the semi finals in Nottingham last week on the grass and had a three setter here against Rajeev Ram, who is capable on grass, here yesterday. He'll be ready for this, while Anderson may not.