Davis Cup Final Betting: Fast courts to hamper Ferrer?

Sean is expecting a lengthy match between these two today

The 100th Davis Cup final begins this afternoon in Prague between the Czech Republic and Spain and tennis expert Sean Calvert previews the opening rubber - David Ferrer vs Radek Stepanek..

Day one of the 2012 Davis Cup Final is where we will discover the key element of the tie - the speed of the courts. 

One makes the assumption that the Czech Republic have tailored this O2 Arena surface with one primary objective and that's to make conditions as quick as possible.

They'd be crazy to do anything else and today's opening rubber, which begins at 3pm UK time, will tell all and it's between Radek Stepanek and David Ferrer. 

These two old foes are meeting for the 10th time and the second in Davis Cup, where their only meeting so far went the distance on Ferrer's favoured clay in Spain.

Ferrer has been effectively 'bounced out' on quick surfaces before and while on all recent form from the last 12 months he should and perhaps will handle the ageing Stepanek relatively comfortably today, the unknown about the surface makes him a poor bet at 1.21/5 in my view. 

The wily Stepanek will see this as a last chance for Davis Cup glory and he has a shot today if the conditions are in his favour against what will surely be a slightly jaded Ferrer, who has played 13 matches in the last few weeks of a season where he's played 89 in all. 

Ferrer backers might be best advised to take a chance on him winning 3-1 at odds of around 3.613/5 today rather than wade in on a 1.21/5 shot, but to me this one looks like it might go long and surely it will go over the total games mark of 35.5.

The price on that is around 1.674/6 and that looks a solid wager to begin the weekend, as does laying Ferrer 3-0 at 2.466/4, which is effectively the same thing. 

Recommended Bet
Back over 35.5 games in Ferrer v Stepanek at 1.674/6