Haase should rumble Rublev in Monte Carlo

Sky Sports Arena, 10am Monday

Robin Haase look overpriced for his clash against youngster Andrey Rublev in the Monte Carlo Masters.

Haase has been in decent nick this season with good runs in Rotterdam and Dubai, and he is more experienced on clay.

Rublev has been woefully out of form, losing his last five matches in straight sets, and is unlikely to be approaching his first clay event of the season with any confidence.

The pair’s only meeting was to years ago, when Rublev came out on top, but expect a different story this time.

Kei Nishikori can spark a return to form this week with an opening victory over fellow former top-ten player, Tomas Berdych.

This is likely to be a fiercely contested encounter, with the big-hitting of the Czech up against the brilliant returning of the Japanese player.

Nishikori is trying to get back to his former heights following bouts of injuries and hasn’t played a competitive clay-court match since last year’s French Open, but on his day he’s a vastly superior slow-court player than his opponent.

His well being has to be taken on trust, but the prices reflect that, and if back to anything like his best he should be too strong for Berdych.

The main women’s tournament this week is in Zhengzhou, China. Naomi Broady is the sole British hope and she should find navigating her first round a relatively easy task, but as a result she is too short a price.

One player who isn’t, though, is Saisai Zheng, who takes on second seed Shuai Peng. On their best form, Peng would be the strong favourite, but she is on a long losing run that doesn’t look like changing, even in front of a home crowd.

Zheng has been in good form with a quarter-final run in Shenzhen after a good win at the US Open over Alison Van Uytvanck. She’s also likely to be fresher than her opponent, having contested only one tournament this year.

Recommendations
R Haase
1pt Evens general
K Nishikori
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Saisai Zheng
1pt 5-4 Betfair

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