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Roger Federer In The Hunt For The Rome Masters Title


Rafael Nadal at the 2008 French Open.

Roger Federer has a bye through the first round but then he will open against either Marcos Baghdatis or Ernests Gulbis.

 

Roger Federer remains the top ranked player on the ATP tour and he will be looking to bounce back from a poor showing on the American hard courts.  As the top player in the world he is guaranteed a first round bye at the Rome Masters, an event where qualifying has already started.  After the first round is complete then Fed will then open against either Marcos Baghdatis or Ernests Gulbis.  Regardless of who Federer plays, he may be in for a tough match as Gulbis is playing well while Baghdatis defeated Federer in Indian Wells.

At this point many are looking well ahead, past the second round, and toward a ‘Fedal’ semifinal as Rafael Nadal is in the same half of the draw as Fed.

Nadal’s form is so frightening that it’s unlikely that even the reigning French Open champion will be able to stop him in Rome.

bet365 still have Nadal priced at odds that can be bet (-187; 8/15) while Federer’s best price is available at +500 (5/1) with Paddy Power.  We’re recommending just running with Nadal at this point against the field even though his odds are shorter than EVEN.  As a case in point Fernando Verdasco just took down the ATP Barcelona event by defeating Robin Soderling in the final: last week in Monte Carlo, Verdasco barely took a game off of Nadal, proof that Rafa is heads and shoulders above everyone on clay once again.

Ian goes back to the very early days of CrunchSports, having been tirelessly covering soccer for us for over 10 years.

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