Sportsbet Blog

When talk of tennis turns to Rafael Nadal one of the things that immediately springs to mind is his dominance over the majority of his opponents and in particular Roger Federer. Watching him play it is hard to imagine that any player could dominate this Spanish superstar.

One player who has managed to gain an advantage over Nadal recently is the Argentinian David Nalbandian. In there previous two meetings he has beaten Nadal in straight sets, losing a combined total of just 7 games in those 2 matches – two more dominant displays against Nadal are hard to recall.

So when Nalbandian raced to a 6-3, 5-3 lead at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, the tennis world was beginning to wonder what voodoo magic was at work to give him an edge over this seemingly indestructible giant of the game.

Then came the fightback.

Despite being down five match points Nadal never lost his self belief. And knowing that he surely had their last two encounters in the back of his mind made this display all the more impressive.

He took the second set in a tiebreak, broke the will of his opponent and stormed home to take the final set without dropping a game.

It is this mental strength that sets Nadal apart from all his contemporaries – especially Federer. The Swiss maestro is perhaps one of the best frontrunners the game has ever see. Give him a sniff of victory and his confidence is displayed in his outrageous shot making ability.

But get him behind the eight-ball as we saw earlier this year in Melbourne and you can almost see the fear of defeat in his eyes as he pulls back on his shot making and steers the ball around the court praying for a mistake from a man who makes few.

And so this tournament is steering its natural course towards another clash between the world’s top ranked men. Other players such as Andy Murray and Juan Del Potro are staking their claims with some impressive tennis but the expectations are for a Nadal, Federer final.

With Federer having had a full month of rest, and Nadal doing it tough with a knee injury, perhaps this is a chance for Federer to regain some confidence ahead of the mid-season majors beginning with the French and followed soon after by Wimbledon.

The women’s side of the tournament has seen almost all the big names sent packing early with Ana Ivanovic and Vera Zvonereva the only two household names left in the tournament.

Most impressive have been the efforts of two players on the rise – 17 yr old Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkov and 19yr old Victoria Azarenka who defeated Dinara Safina, preventing her from joining her brother Marat in as a player who has sat atop the world rankings.

Both titles will be decided over the weekend and should make for some excellent viewing

Crooksy

Some big golf and tennis events are currently underway so today I’ll take a look at who’s in with the best chance.

Golf – WGC-CA Championships

After two rounds of the WGC event in Florida, Phil Mickelson has maintained his place at the top of the leader board, firing a six under par 66 to go with his 65 from the opening round. Nick Watney is two shots back, with Kenny Perry and young Irish prodigy Rory McIlory within striking distance at ten under the card.

In his second event back after an eight month lay-off, Tiger Woods has been steady shooting 71 & 70 to leave him 10 shots off the pace. He was happy with his play, citing his flatstick as the reason his scores weren’t lower.

While Mickelson has been playing well, I don’t think the score is a true indication of his performance. He has been wayward off the tee, hitting just 50% of fairways, which is not normally good enough to win you a big tournament like this one. His low score can be attributed to his scrambling play – he has chipped in four times in two days, and has had just 42 putts so far for the week, an average he surely can’t maintain.

If you’re looking for a bet on this tournament you might think about laying Mickelson with Betfair, there’s every chance he’ll blow out if he doesn’t get his tee to green play sorted. Players to watch for in the final two rounds  include McIlroy,  Columbian Camilo Villegas and Kenny Perry.

Tennis – BNP Paribas Open, Indian Wells

The Men’s Draw

The BNP Paribas open has begun in Indian Wells, California and on the men’s side we have the world’s top four players back in the same tournament for the first time since The Australian Open.

Roger Federer is playing in his first event since that demoralizing defeat to Nadal in Melbourne, Murray has returned from a short break after withdrawing from the event in Dubai, and Nadal seems to be OK after testing his knee out in the Davis Cup tie against Serbia last week. He wiped the floor with world number three Novak Djokovic so things would appear to be fine for Nadal.

As would be expected Nadal has been installed as favourite, although there is not as much of a gap in the betting between him and Federer as I thought there would be. This could either mean that the bookies are offering too much on Nadal, ot too little on Federer.

I think it would be very hard to back Federer to win straight up after his lay-off, Murray’s health is still in question and Djokovic is yet to convince me that his form this year has reached the heights of ’08.

Which leaves the man from Majorca – Nadal

The Women’s Draw

The women’s tournament seems to be a much more open event. Dinara Safina, Elena Dementieva, Vera Zvonareva and Jelena Jankovic are all around the same in the betting, with Safina prbably being installed as the slight favourite.

From this field, Dementieva and Safina are the players with the best big tournament form so far this year and with both Williams sisters missing from this tournament, they will see this as a fantastic opportunity to claim one of the more important WTA events on the calendar.

One outsider to consider is Victoria Azarenko who had an excellent tournament win in Tennessee last month where she dropped just four games in the final against Caroline Wozniacki.

Incidentally the two finalists teamed up to claim the doubles title at the same event, so it was a good week for the pair.

Crooksy