sm80
| Join Date: | May 28, 2009 |
I see value in these odds. I agree with the fact that Becker is in good form, shows excellent tennis, his latest results on grass are great: quoter-final in Halle and win in the Netherlands. But I would admit his opponents either were not top level or are not in form (as Verdasco). Also Wimbledon is the other type of tournaments, here all participants plays with other desire and make every effort to win. I think class of Melzer is higher, both have good serve, play aggressively on grass. So in my opinion chances are about 50/50.
For both of them grass is not favorite surface. Nevertheless, in this pair I prefer Hanescu. Navarro plays inconstantly, after had won several matches on grass and quite good tennis, he played very weakly against Sluiter, looked straightforward (serve and then net approach), his style of playing is quite simple, nothing clever. And it was only Sluiter (player from second hundred). Hanescu has stronger serve and i am sure he will be able to find a weapon for such kind of play. These guys met once (on clay) and Hanescu won easily. Time to win on grass.
Risky but worth to try because of value. Dancevic is favorite by bookies opinion because he has reached the final where played against Tursunov, but the way to final was quite easy, without serious opponents. Yes, Dancevic has very good serve, but Darcis too. Both can show good play on baseline. For both grass isn't favorite surface. So in my opinion chances to win are 50/50.
I wouldn't say that Kiefer is clear favorite in this match. For Santoro it's last season of career, that's why he do his best in every match of each tournament, I'm sure he is not going to loose in first round. Head to head record: 6-3 for Santoro, on grass 1-0 for Kiefer. By now Santoro shows quite good tennis, clever and tricky as always. Sometimes while seeing him in moving it's impossible to trust that he is 36-years old. Kiefer is straightforward and sometimes inconstant. Shortly put, i see value in Santoro.
This match will mean nothing for both teams, Germany have qualified yet to final round, Israel have no chances to qualify. So it will be good chance for coaches to try different players. Germany is favorite here, they play using 6-0 defense schema, that's why i don't think Israel will be able to score a lot of goals. Also German players will not be trying to crash Israel because of status this match. First match between these teams finished with score 36:24, it looks like today we will see similar total.
Knockout received by Belarus in their first match has become a good lesson and a reason to change something. In my opinion, one of main reasons such utter defeat are mistakes in squad made by coach and mistakes in defense. Today the coach announced that he is going to change some players and his team is going to play more aggressively. These opponents know each other quite good because played together in qualification (3-1 and 1-1). I expect stubborn battle, each team believe they can win. The class of Serbians is not so high as books decided, if Belarus can psychologically restore after first match, they will not loose.
Sweden have shown quite attractive football in their first match, pair Berg - Toivonen looks very dangerous, line of midfielders are looking forward to help forwards, these two lines look tightly connected. Home stands will get worked up their football players to score from first minutes. Italians, as I wrote before, have one the best lines of forwards on the championship, they didn't score in the first match because of being unlucky and defense-style of Serbian team. I expect Sweden will not choose such defense style and expect quite open game. Italians are in dangerous situation and understand that they really need to score, their schema with 3 forwards is applicable for it.