Djokovic opens Swiss Indoors challenge against Latvian Gulbis
Published:Novak Djokovic is the main challenger to Roger Federer’s attempts to win on home soil this week, but despite Djokovic’s 1/8 price to beat Ernests Gulbis, this is a tough first round match for the Serb.
Djokovic and Gulbis have met three times throughout their career, with Djokovic holding a 2-1 lead over the Latvian, but the world number three lost to Gulbis when they last met and Gulbis recently made the quarter-finals of the PTT Thailand Open.
Gulbis is available at 9/2 to beat Djokovic, and a repeat of the 2-0 victory in Brisbane is available at 8/1.
Djokovic should progress to the second round but the confidence that a previous victory over a top player breeds means the 1/8 should be avoided as there seems no value in the ATP betting market.
Although if you are adamant that Djokovic will not be tested by Gulbis, the three times that these two have met the match has been over in straight sets, and a 2-0 Djokovic win is available at 2/5.
Viktor Troicki vs Michael Berrer
A potentially explosive first round clash sees Kremlin Cup winner Viktor Troicki take on Germany’s Michael Berrer.
Troicki has been one of the form players of the hard court season, winning in Russia two weeks ago and has only suffered defeats at the hands of Rafael Nadal, Jarkko Nieminen and Rainer Schuettler – Troicki is 1/2 to beat Berrer.
However, Berrer has beaten Troicki on all three occasions that the two have met, the last win was as recently as February on the hard courts, and is 6/4 to beat Troicki.
Berrer reached the semi-finals in Austria last week, beating Marco Baghdatis, Pablo Cuervas and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez on the way and the 6/4 seems great value.
Berrer won 2-0 when the two met in February and it’s 10/3 for the same result today. See the full Davidoff Swiss Indoors betting odds here.
