[Wittmann 44]

A juicier looking coupon tomorrow in both Halle and in London. Firstly London

A double from Stella Artois to start with:

Grosjean-Henman 2 Units @ 1.47 (Pinnacle)

Grosean meets Berrer and Timmy meets Cilic. Despite what you may think of Henman he is still a class act on grass. In an era without Hewitt and Federer he would have won Wimbeldon at least once. He has a great record here (3 Finals, 2 SFs including last year). Cilic has played little on clay and I don’t think he has the guile or weapons to beat Henman here. Ditto Berrer against Grosjean who is an excellent serve and volley specialist and who has good form here as well.

Kendrick-Gulbis

I don’t usually like opposing decent carpet players like Gulbis on grass against weak opponents but I’m going to make an exception here in Gulbis’s case. He took the biggest scalp of his career in Roland Garros when putting Henman out without breaking sweat. He also has some decent results on fast carpet. This is however his first match on grass and he meets a player who has already acclimatised in Surbiton to the surface and who is in the top 30 stats of aces per game on the tour. Kednrick is having a good 2007 with wins on the Challenger circuit on both clay (Naples) and hardcourt (Dallas). Kendrick made the SF in Surbiton where he was put out by Croatian giant and ace machine Karlovic. His claim to fame is probably taking Nadal to 5 in Wimbeldon last year. Gulbis is lightweight in the serve and it’s a big ask to see him winning a first game on clay against a player who will be firing serves at high speed at him here.

2 Units Kendrick @ 1.53 (William Hill)

Karlovic-Fish

Having been royally fcuked by big Ivo Karlovic in the French Open (my third biggest bet burning on him) I’m slightly reluctant to give him another chance but I do thin k he has a good chance here given his run to the final in Surbiton on grass and the incredible succession of aces he bombed down there. He leads Fish 3-1 (all very tight) but Fish is a shadow of the player he was then and has been suffering from a succession of injuries that have seen him plummet down the rankings in 2006 only to rebound with some good results at the start of 2006. He has warmed up for this by losing in the doubles with Delic and there are rumours he is carrying a foot inury. Of the 12 sets the two have played an incredible 7 have gone to tiebreaks so if there is a total games market on this I would be getting long of it. This will be an ugly game of tennis. A 3 setter looks a good call.

0.5 Units Fish 2-1 @ 5.6
0.5 Units Karlovic 2-1 @ 4.1

Delic-Serra

2 players with little in the way of grass pedigree between them in similar form – Delic has played doubles here with Fish and has a very strong serve that looks suited towards grass but the 7-9 record on the surface leaves a lot to be desired and at a best priced 1.66 I can leave Delic. A definite no better