Tuesday, June 27, 2006

"Grass is for cows" ......

...... famous saying by Manuel Santana and echoed down the years by Guga, Lendl, Rios and any other number of clay courters, with a dislike for Wimbledon.

Guess that Nickolay Davydenko has very similar sentiments, he has one win on grass in ten attempts, that sole victory coming against a player ranked 787 in the world! He has lost to such luminaries as Yeu-Tzuoo Wang, Kohlschreiber and in 2003, to the 489 ranked Lee Childs.

Today,weather permitting, he meets 22 yo Alejandro Falla, the Colombian has come through 3 rounds of qualifing, so should be in tip top shape. On his only previous appearance at Wimbledon two years ago, he won his first round match and went out, to Roger Federer on centre court, so should have no nerves today. He has good form on hard courts, a nice back hand, reasonable serve and has improved his ranking by over 100 places in the last 3 months.

Falla went out of Roland Garros in the second round to Roger Federer (again), but managed 4 aces, the same as the world number one. Sure that he will be up to serving a few more today, Davydenko has no liking for grass and Falla is in good shape and hungry, just do not understand how the Russian can be huge odds on, for this match.

4 points Falla to beat Davydenko 2.75 general ( 2.87 bet and win)

Good Luck.

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