Suisse Open 2014 Betting: Handy draw points to Garcia-Lopez in Gstaad

Guillermo Garcia-Lopez has a good draw in Gstaad

The ATP Tour heads to Switzerland this week for the Suisse Open in Gstaad and tennis expert Sean Calvert assesses the field ahead of this ATP 250 event on clay...

The ATP World Tour offers tournaments on European clay and North American hard courts in Week 30, as Gstaad, Umag and Atlanta welcome some of the world's best male players.

Last week's two wagers were beaten by the eventual champion and a sensational run from a star of the future, as Leonardo Mayer won Hamburg and Alexander Zverev took down one of my picks on his way to the semis.

Kicking off on the clay of Gstaad, Switzerland, we have the Credit Agricole Suisse Open, which is played at an altitude of just over 1000 metres above sea level, so it's one of the fastest clay events on the tour.

That will likely be tempered slightly this year as rain is forecast for the first three days and we my find ourselves in a situation whereby several players have to play more that once per day if they want to make the latter stages.

We scored with Roberto Bautista-Agut a few weeks ago when he had to do just that and another Spaniard who may have to go the same route is Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

GGL should be well rested and in good condition for this after losing out narrowly to Mayer in the opening round in Hamburg and indeed he also lost to the eventual title winner the week before as well - to Bautista-Agut in Stuttgart.

His draw looks better this time though, in the top half with out of form number one seed Mikhail Youzhny, out of form Robin Haase, injured Juan Monaco, and very little else to concern him.

The 11.010/1 shot has been in fine form on the clay this season, with a title in Casablanca and a quarter final in Monte-Carlo and after losing in tie breakers to Mayer and RBA he's due a run.

His half of the draw looks much more comfortable than the bottom, with perhaps Thomaz Bellucci a decent long shot with his liking for this event and tournaments at altitude in general.

The hit and miss Brazilian has a 12-2 record here, but he's been well off the pace this season and it would be a remarkable turnaround in fortunes if he were to come close to a third Gstaad title.

My money would rather be with Federico Delbonis, who won at altitude in Sao Paolo earlier this year and also made the final in Nice. The 15.014/1 about him seems a much better option than the 21.020/1 about Bellucci.

In the bottom half we have the very shaky tournament favourite Fernando Verdasco, who is an incredibly short 4.57/2 for this and both he and Youzhny look poor bets at that price on current form.

Verdasco's last three events have ended in defeats to Marinko Matosevic, Pablo Cuevas and Dustin Brown and he hasn't won a title on European clay for over four years.

Fellow Spaniard and number two seed Marcel Granollers can play here, as he showed by beating Verdasco in the 2011 final and he made the last eight again last year.

As well as Granollers and Verdasco there's Dominic Thiem, who could go well, but he's too short for me at 17.016/1.

I was prepared to take a chance on him at a very big price last week, but not this time and he has an intriguing first round match with the returning Viktor Troicki, who's been off the tour on a doping ban.

Viktor's current ranking is 842, but he's been helped out by a handy wild card here and I'm sure his pal Novak Djokovic will help him out with a few others before the end of the season.

As well as these, there's Gilles Simon, Andrey Golubev, Jan-Lennard Struff, and Pablo Andujar all battling it out in the bottom half and Garcia-Lopez looks to have much the best of the draw in Gstaad this week.

Over in Umag I would expect a strong showing from Marin Cilic there, while in Atlanta I like the look of Kevin Anderson to potentially win that title on outdoor hard.

Both are a bit short, so my vote this week goes to Garcia-Lopez in Gstaad.

Recommended Bet
Back Garcia-Lopez to win Gstaad at 11.010/1