Federer draws a tricky first round match as Gulbis has been doing well on tour lately.
Roger Federer now knows who his first opponent will be in Rome as Ernests Gulbis defeated Marcos Baghdatis in the first round of the Masters Series 1000 event in Italy for the right to play Fed in the second round.
Odds have opened for the match and Federer is coming in as a heavy favorite:
Roger Federer to win: -700 (1/7) with bet365
Ernests Gulbis to win: +430 (43/10) with bwin.com
It wasn’t that long ago that Gulbis was ranked near 100th on tour and fading but since that time he has really turned things around as he has taken down his maiden title on tour recently. The 21 year old is now ranked 40th and he is an improving player on the ATP world tour, one that is likely aiming to get high enough into the rankings to be seeded in the Grand Slam events.
Head to head these two players have met one time and the result is recent as Gulbis lost to Federer in Doha 2010: 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.
Gulbis does not appear to be interested in losing to weak players on tour any longer. This season he only has one loss to a player outside of the top 50 and that was Leonardo Mayer back in San Jose. However the highest ranked player that Gulbis has defeated this year is Radek Stepanek, an aging star who is fading on tour, as Gulbis took the Czech player out of Memphis in straight sets. Stepanek probably won’t be hanging around the top 40 much longer however, as he’s old as far as tennis players go and has never had a knack to win big matches anyways.
Gulbis has not demonstrated an ability to take out the top players yet that are still on top of their games as he has fallen this season to Federer, Nikolay Davydenko, Stanislas Wawrinka, and Fernando Verdasco.
Our recommendation is to take Federer to win this match in straight sets and you can get a good price on that event with SkyBet at this time as they have that result at -137 (100/137). It’s a good pick to make as Federer should be looking to make a statement in his first match since suffering a loss to Tomas Berdych in Miami.
