ATP MASTERS TENNIS ..... ROMA

I have spent several hours looking at the Tennis Masters in Rome today and seriously considered three bets, eventually deciding to wait for another day.

However, I will briefly give you a quick round up of each, let me start by saying that this surface is one of the quicker clay courts.

Igor Andreev (circa 3.35) and Radek Stepanek (2.54), looked a little overpriced against Ferrer and Haas respectively.

Ferrer is very talented on the dirt, but his Russian opponent is no slouch, leads the h2h 2-1, including a win in their only meeting on clay. He is 76-51 lifetime on the surface and is motivated to get his ranking back to it's former heights.

Haas is not very happy on clay and prefers the quicker surfaces, he did make the final here in 2002, but leaving that aside, has just one win in his last six visits to Rome.

Stepanek is a respectable 8-4 here and took a set off Nadal in 2005, this should be close.

I was very interesting in laying James Blake to win 2-0 in sets against Gael Monfils. The talented Frenchman has had a long run of injuries and a host of first round losses this season, but has shown signs, albeit small, of a return to form.

Blake has lost 3 years running here in the opening round and has not played for a month.

Monfils made the semis here last year, losing only to Rafa, he also had a strong showing at Roland Garros, where he beat Blake, in 5 very long sets, their only previous meeting on clay.

So, that sounded pretty good, but then I heard that he has just withdrawn from Hamburg next week and I have been unable to find out why. Given his recent injury problems, it is too big a risk to back him, without that knowledge.

Two football bets today, which I will post this afternoon.

Back later.