BNP Paribas Masters Betting: Stepanek to continue Llodra dominance

Sean fancies another Stepanek win today

It's day two at the 2012 BNP Paribas Masters and tennis expert Sean Calvert is back with another recommendation in Bercy..

It was a good start to the week at the Palais Omnisports on Monday as my bet of the day cruised home with the minimum of fuss.

Gilles Simon was always likely to be too solid for Marcos Baghdatis in the slow Bercy conditions and so it proved, as he ran out a straight sets winner.

On to Tuesday then and the match that catches my eye today is the eighth in the career series between Radek Stepanek and local hope Michael Llodra.

Stepanek has had much the better of this match-up over the years and he should represent a good bet at around 1.674/6 to continue that dominance against an opponent who is seemingly in decline.

Llodra has been plying his serve and volley trade on the Challenger circuit since the US Open and his ranking has slipped down to number 127 in the world from a high of 21 just a year and a half ago.

The slowing down of the courts hasn't helped Llodra one bit and since he defeated Novak Djokovic, John Isner and Nikolay Davydenko here in 2010 the Palais Omnisports surface has slowed considerably and it won't be to his liking.

Llodra lost in the first round to Feli Lopez here 12 months ago, but the best pointer to this match today can be found in the fact that the pair played last week in Basel and Stepanek won again.

Basel and Bercy both use the same GreenSet courts and if anything it's a touch slower in Paris, which will disappoint Llodra and gives me more reason to side with Steps today.

The veteran Czech has won six of the seven matches against Llodra and like the Frenchman he has done well here recently - beating Andy Murray and reaching the semi finals in 2009 and the change in court speed shouldn't inconvenience him too much.

Recommended Bet
Back Stepanek to beat Llodra at 1.674/6