ATP - Dudi Sela v Donald Young

ATP NEW HAVEN - FIRST ROUND

Sunday, 8/17/2008 3:15 PM DUDI SELA (ISR) vs. DONALD YOUNG (USA)

Two young players going head to head today in the first round of this tournament. Dudi Sela wasn't allowed to play in the Olympics by the Israeli Olympic Committee, as a response to his decision of not playing the Davis Cup in the future and he will be fired up today, to prove how wrong was the decision of the Israeli Olympic Committee. Some other countries didn't allow their players to play in Beijing, due to poor results of these players recently, but that wasn't even the case of Sela.

He went to the United States soon this Summer to play on hardcourt and the truth is that he is 9-3 in the last 30 days, with all matches been on hardcourt and played in North America. Sela is a consistent player, with a really decent backhand and the reason why he has been struggling recently is his poor serve and he gets over powered in some matches. However this is extremely unlikely to happen today. The fact that he is 4-10 outside North America and 14-10 inside North America this season shows that he will be comfortable on this tournament. Even though he is just 18-21 this season, he is 15-10 on hardcourt in 2008, showing that the ideal tournament for him right now is an hardcourt tournament played in North America, just like New Haven.

Dudi Sela's opponent today will be Donald Young, hyped to be a future number one, but who is yet to show anything at all. Young has a terrible record of 10-29 at ATP level (8-16 this season) and he clearly shows that he is not ready for this level yet. Sometimes he shows some glimpses of good tennis, but most of the times what we see while watching him is a terrible serve, combined with a horrible shot selection and a poor mentality on court. Young often "gives up" during a match and that's one of the reason he gets beatdowns so many times. Even though he struggles with almost every kind of player, Young struggles even more with consistent baseliners, as recent defeats at the hands of Gilles Simon, Oscar Hernandez and Wayne Odesnik show it.

Sela has been playing very well recently on hardcourt and he has something to prove to his country. He will be motivated to play in here, while Young can get a nice result once in a while (like that out-of-nowhere win over Tommy Haas), but he is still far from ready to be a considered an ATP level player. Sela with his consistent game should get the job done in here.

Pick: 3 units (Regular Play) on Dudi Sela ML @1.714 on Pinnacle

Pick : Dudi Sela
Odds : 1.71
Stake : 8 / 10
Bookmaker : Pinnacle
Match Result : 2-0
Tipster Personal Link/Sponsor: http://www.andregomes.com

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