Barcelona and Bucharest Tennis

So I've decided to take a quick look at this week's tennis tournaments in both Barcelona and Bucharest. Barcelona has got a very strong field which includes defending champion and the now eight time Monte Carlo Masters champion Rafael Nadal. Nadal won the title last year and also five times from 2005-2009 while in 2010 he didn't take part. I could try to make a case for how there are a few players who could win this title but truthfully it's all in Rafa's hands. He's just crushed Novak Djokovic for the loss of just four games in Monte Carlo and he comes into this event full of confidence and I fully expect him to win the title again. World number four Andy Murray is also in the field and will be looking to improve on his poor record here where he has only won a match once before. I don't see Murray doing that well this week. I think his tactics last week were awful and very negative. He just rallied side to side with opponents he should be beating comfortable and when he came up against Berdych he looked lost. Berdych destroyed Murray in the final two sets and unless we see some drastic changes then he could lose early here too. A quarter final with Nicolas Almagro could be the point where he could be horribly exposed. Robin Haase and Milos Raonic are also in that section and would both be capable of taking him down. David Ferrer was shocked last week in his first game and so he will surely be back in top form this week in his native country where he has lost in the final to Nadal three times. Ferrer should be the man to make the final from the bottom half but he won't have a chance against Nadal in the final. So this should be the easiest tournament for me to pick the winner of and it has to be Nadal.
          Bucharest is the venue for the second tournament this week where Gilles Simon is the top seed. The standard isn't very high this week in my opinion and there are only a handful of players I would look at. 5th seed Marcos Baghdatis is making his debut here and deserves a mention although I don't think he could put enough good performances together to win the title. Defending champion Florian Mayer will have title aspirations again but I think his form hasn't been good enough to warrant a real threat. Three Italians in the field are also worth a mention. All three have clay court credentials and if they get a run going could find themselves in the semi finals or even final. Those players are Filippo Volandri, Fabio Fognini and Andreas Seppi. I'd watch them carefully but for me the main man this week is Simon. He was outstanding last week in Monte Carlo and was incredible against Nadal. He should carry that form into this week and win his third title here.
          You can get odds of about 1/3 for Nadal to win the title in Barcelona which is almost a certain bet with Andy Murray at 7/1 and Ferrer at 8 if their the ones your interested in. Gilles Simon is about 6/4 or 5/2 to win the title in Bucharest which is very good value and a double containing Nadal and Simon is 3/1 with some bookmakers and that is the best value bet for the week.