Today finally marked Rafael Nadal's return to competitive professional tennis. He faced the limited Argentinian Federico Delbonis in the evening match in Chile in front of a pretty packed crowd and ended up pretty much routing the South American on a 6-3 6-2 scoreline. Apart from the opening games when Nadal dropped his serve, he was never really tested and indeed he showed some moments of real class, particularly on the forehand side, and particularly in the second set. Nadal's serve also looked impressive in the second stanza although it is hard to judge anything from tonight's match given the calibre of player he was up against. It looks as though his knees held up and it will be interesting to see what he has to say in the press conference after the match. Elsewhere in Vina del Mar, defending champion and number two seed, Juan Monaco of Argentina has been dumped out at the first hurdle by Guillerme Rufin of France, making Nadal's route to the title even easier! I think this week is mainly about feeling his way back into the groove of competitive, pressurized tennis for the former world number one, and it won't be too long until he is back to himself, based on tonight's showing. He is certainly just as far, if not further along in his recovery than I thought he would be.
In other news today, Davydenko went out in the first round of Montpellier, losing to the Finn Jarkko Nieminen while my man Mika Llodra looked at his ease in disposing of Kenny De Schepper in his first match on a 6-3 6-3 scoreline.
Tomorrow sees Ivan Dodig coming up against Ivo Karlovic, who I have tipped for the title in Zagreb at 20/1. They have met twice before and Dodig has won both, with one being a tight five setter at the 2011 Australian Open. I think the bookies are reading into those results in terms of setting the odds but Karlovic is the type of player who can be very hot and cold, and judging by what I saw in his first round match against Dimitrov, I am very confident that he can beat the somewhat ordinary Dodig at odds of 2.30 on the exchanges. There will more than likely be two tiebreaks but I certainly like his chances and especially so at odds-against. Finally, Llodra comes up against the stiff test of Janko Tipsarevic tomorow afternoon in the south of France but it is not a recommended bet as his odds of 2.26 are not long enough in my opinion. While I think and hope that Llodra will win the match, I think he should be at least 6/4, given that he is playing a top ten player. I am more than happy to just watch this one and cheer for Llodra, who, if he serves well, will beat the Serb in straight sets.
Recommended bet:
Ivo Karlovic to beat Ivan Dodig 3pts @ 2.30
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