Tennis Picks 2014 (August 1st)

It has just been a tough week with the little breaks not going my way, while the players must be feeling incredibly frustrated themselves in Kitzbuhel with all the rain affecting play.


Over the last couple of days, both men's and women's Tours have lost important figures for at least the next two weeks and possibly as far as the US Open, the final Grand Slam of the season. Na Li is definitely going to be out of action until after the US Open which has to be a real disappointment with doubts surrounding Serena Williams.

The tournament looks very open and Li has the capabilities of performing on the hard courts and would have been one of the favourites to win the title at Flushing Meadows.


Rafael Nadal is the other big name who has pulled out of both Masters tournaments coming up in Toronto and Cincinnati and that also leaves his participation in the US Open in doubt. If he is out for the next month with the wrist injury he suffered, the chances of Nadal finishing the year at World Number 1 would virtually be extinguished barring Novak Djokovic having a terrible end to the season.

After winning Wimbledon, Djokovic should have been given a shot in the arm in terms of confidence in the 'big' matches and he does look incredibly difficult to stop over the remaining three months of the season. He is the clear favourite to win the US Open this time and it is hard to go against that on current form and with Nadal out of action too.


Andreas Seppi + 2.5 games v Juan Monaco: Andreas Seppi has beaten Juan Monaco twice on clay already this season, but Monaco has had the better run on the clay although I am not convinced that is enough to make him a bigger favourite than he was when they met two weeks ago.

On that occasion it was virtually a pick 'em contest and both players took one set easily before the Italian came through in a deciding tie-breaker and I expect this to be a competitive Quarter Final.

Seppi has benefited from a bye through to this Round and I believe he will be the fresher player after Monaco's run to the Final in Gstaad last week. That may have rebuilt some confidence for Monaco, but he has lost three of the four clay court matches against Seppi and I do like the latter to at least keep this close, if not win the match outright.


Kevin Anderson - 3.5 games v Donald Young: I was actually expecting this match to feature at least one more game on the spread and I might have been less interested in taking this pick, but the current number of games is under-estimating Kevin Anderson I feel.

The big South African has won two matches comfortably in Washington and I would expect the serve to give Donald Young plenty of issues through the contest.

While Young had an impressive win over Denis Istomin, Kevin Anderson is much more consistent and won't drop his level as much as Istomin did at times. The serve should also create 'easier' points for Anderson and I am not surprised he has beaten Young five times in a row, albeit the last time they played on another is back in 2011.

Arguably Anderson has gotten better since then while Young is still in purgatory and I like Anderson to win this 64, 64.

MY PICKS: Andreas Seppi + 2.5 Games @ 2.00 Pinnacle (2 Units)
Kevin Anderson - 3.5 Games @ 1.80 Bet Victor (2 Units)

Weekly Update: 7-11, - 8.10 Units (36 Units Staked, - 22.5% Yield)