Youzhny looking to continue Simon dominance at Rogers Cup
Published:Mikhail Youzhny will be looking to maintain his impressive head-to-head record against Gilles Simon as the pair tussle in the opening round of the Rogers Cup in Toronto.
The Russian, who is seeded 12th, has won all five of his previous meetings against Simon and has proven in the past that he often produces his best tennis on harder surfaces.
He is a 5/6 chance to oust the Frenchman in the opening round, while Simon has the cards stacked further against him as he continues to recover from a right knee problem that has hindered a large chunk of his season.
Youzhny does have to contend with this year’s Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych and Roger Federer in his quarter of the draw, but is an 80/1 chance to secure a tournament victory ahead of the US Open, which begins at Flushing Meadows on August 30th.
Sam Querrey has already secured two victories in 2010 and will be hopeful of a comfortable opening-round success in his all-American clash with Michael Russell.
The big-serving 16th seed has already beaten qualifier Russell this season when triumphing in straight sets in San Jose and is 4/7 to do so again, while he is 1/5 to simply progress to a round two clash with either Marin Cilic or Viktor Troicki.
Russell did manage to reach the quarter finals in Atlanta two weeks ago and is 10/3 to win in his first game at the Rogers Cup since 2007.
Elsewhere, Jurgen Melzer has failed to make it past the first round of the tournament in the past three years and will be hopeful of ending this run against hometown wildcard Peter Polansky.
Melzer is a 1/9 chance to reach the second round, while world number 200 Polansky is 5/1 to secure a first tour-level victory of the season.
Andy Murray won the Rogers Cup in 2009 and is 7/1 to repeat the victory this year.
