Isner defeated Melzer 6-3 6-4 for a much needed breath of fresh air after having an awful season, highlighted by blowing USA’s Davis Cup tie against Great Britain last week by losing to James Ward. John`s form is really bad for some time now and it seems he can`t catch a break. He did play well against Melzer (especially on serve, 0 break points allowed) but not anything special, after all Melzer is more like old-boys material right now – even if I did expect Jurgen to cause Isner more problems due to the matchup between them. All in all, the American could gain some confidence from that win and also from the fact that Indian Wells is one of his favorite tournaments.
Kevin Anderson is playing the best tennis of his life right now, he`s having a really good year with a R16 showing at the Australian Open, final in Memphis and two other semifinals – after having a solid 2014 as well. He had a rather straightforward win in the second round against Delbonis, 7-5 6-4, holding serve for the entire match.
Isner leads the Head 2 Head 7-3 (7-4 if we take into account a semi-official match in Hopman Cup) and won the last 4 meetings. On hard the score is 6-4. The Head 2 Head would suggestst a matchup advantage for John, but I doubt that is the case. Both are big servers, and the Head 2 Head is more due to the fact that Isner is simply a slightly better player when in form, while Anderson started playing at a top level no earlier than.
The odds on Anderson are going up because of the Head 2 Head and I`m really tempted to bet on Kevin, but I will stick with a tip on a first set tiebreak. In the direct meetings so far there were 5 first set tiebreaks in 11 matches and the two played a total of 14 tiebreaks in 25 sets, which is a percentage of over 55%. Obviously both are big servers and not so good returners, especially Isner. There`s also the fact that each player held serve with authority in the previous round, not allowing any breaks, so that will give Isner and Anderson big confidence on serve early in the match.
I do think that Anderson should be the favorite, but all in all it looks like a relatively evenly matched clash and my tip will be a first set tiebreak to occur. Prediction: John Isner – Kevin Anderson 7-6 5-7 6-7.
Pick: First set tiebreak – Yes
Odds: 2.10
0 коментара:
Постави коментар