ATP Buenos Aires

The third stop of the Latin-American clay court swing is in Buenos Aires this week. The first two legs of the four event swing were dominated by the return of Rafa Nadal as he reached the final in Vina Del Mar and then won the Brasilian Open. This week Nadal takes a break but we do still have a very strong field in Argentina this week. The Buenos Aires LTC is known as the Cathedral of Argentinian tennis but the last four titles have all gone to Spanish players. Not since Juan Monaco and David Nalbandian lifted the title in 2007 and 2008 have the home favourites had joy here.
          David Nalbandian offers the best hope of Argentinian success this week but his fitness must be questioned after only returning to the tour last week. His form was incredible in Sao Paulo though, as he reached the final. Two weeks in a row is a big ask for an ageing Nalbandian but you wouldn't rule him out. Federico Delbonis has been playing well on the challenger tour sine the start of the year and doesn't look out of place since returning to the main tour. Whether he has the ability to go deep here is another thing.
         Nicolas Almagro is back this year after reaching the final last year and winning the event in 2011. He lost to Nalbandian last week which was a disappointing result for him. Given his start to the year it seemed very unlikely he would lose early on his return to clay. I don't doubt his clay court talent though and I would expect a better showing this week. Fellow Spaniard Albert Ramos is one to watch this week. He had a great win over Flavio Cipolla yesterday and I saw a lot of him on clay last year, where I was very impressed. A potential dark horse in the draw, nobody will want to play him.
          Tommy Robredo is a talented clay courter and has got a very nice draw so I would watch out for him to win some matches this week. Pablo Andujar and Albert Montanes face each other in the opening round and the winner, likely to be Andujar, will be relishing an early shot at Almagro after his loss last week. Stan Wawrinka has been through the wars this year already. He lost a five hour match with Djokovic in Melbourne and lost a seven hour doubles match at the Davis Cup. He has played sensational tennis so far this year and I think if he can keep that level up then he will be top ten and challenging at majors on a regular basis. A win this week certainly puts him on the map.
          For me there is only one man to watch this week. David Ferrer is the fourth best clay court player in the world, behind only Nadal, Djokovic and Federer. He would be one of the most decorated clay court players of all time if he hadn't lost 14 times to Nadal on clay, including six finals. There isn't anybody in the field this week who can compete with him on the dirt but he could be caught out by a lack of games recently. He hasn't played since Australia but that shouldn't matter once he finds his rhythm. The second half of the draw is very open so I wouldn't even risk an each way bet. Ferrer is 10/11 this week and that is unmissable in my opinion.