Posted on 4/18/2008 7:32:05 PM

Tennis Betting - Davydenko vs. Serra

By Nila Amerova

Estoril, Portugal – Now let me put this out there for the online sports betting community: if you enjoy betting on tennis now is the time to start honing your betting skills. I know most of you like to hold off until the major events hit the online sportsbooks, but seriously, how do you expect to know who to bet on if you do not follow the majority of the tournaments on the calendar? What is that I hear? Oh.... you think sportsbook don’t take action on the smaller events? Well, let me dispel this myth for you my dear tennis-hungry bettors: BetUS Sportsbook is one of the few online sportsbooks that takes action on all the tournaments – whether major or minor – it don’t matter, we’ve got tennis odds on it all!!!!

So now that we have cleared all that up! Let’s get a-tennis-betting!

Tennis Betting Line: Nikolay Davydenko

Match Time: 05:00 AM Eastern Time, Saturday April 19, 2008

Analysis: After spending the latter half of the 2007 season under a persistent cloud of suspicion (more like a kafuffle over some irregular match results that somehow allegedly pointed to gambling conspiracies..... uhhh ??) World No.4 Nikolay Davydenko emerged this year from the depths of darkness into the limelight. Winning the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami (largely considered the unofficial fifth Grand Slam event), Davydenko finally gained the only attention that matters in the game – and that is the right sort of when one becomes a champion of a prestigious event. It would appear he can do no wrong.

Davydenko kicked off his year, posting remarkable results. Although this is not as surprising as some would think, for typically he has always been a consistent performer. Why he has ranked in the Top 5 for eons, except few noticed the quiet Russian until the whole brouhaha.... let’s not get back to that.

Davydenko arrived in Valencia with a 20-5 mark for the year and one ATP title. He improved to 23-5 for the season. His next matchup is against Frenchman Florent Serra, who ranks just beyond the Top 100.

Davydenko is an all-surface player. He has a good edge over Serra on this surface. He is also one of the best returners in the game and his offensive baseline play suits this surface.

Serra leads 1-0 in head-to-heads; however, Davydenko is riding a winning streak this year. I expect he will avenge the loss that came last year on clay in Amersfoort, Netherlands.

Tennis Free Picks: Davydenko in straight sets

Nila Amerova is a freelance sports writer and regular contributor to the BetUS.com Locker Room.