Rogers Cup 2014 Betting: Classy Bautista Agut to prove too much for Lopez

Bautista Agut can win today's all-Spanish clash with Lopez

The Rogers Cup starts its opening round matches on Monday and tennis expert Sean Calvert likes the look of a couple of bets in Toronto today...

The ATP World Tour has arrived in Canada for it's yearly stop in either Toronto or Montreal for one of the oldest and most venerable tournaments on the calendar - the Rogers Cup.

Conditions tend to be a fair bit slower here in Toronto than Montreal, where the WTA ladies are playing the Coupe Rogers this week, so prior records in this tournament need to be looked at carefully.

And one such example can be found in the record of Ivo Karlovic, who is on his seventh visit to the Rogers Cup, but only once before has he played it in a Toronto year - back in 2004 when he lost to Alex Bogomolov Jr.

So, Ivo has never won a match here and Bernard Tomic looks a decent bet to beat the big man again, just a few weeks after doing so in much more favourable conditions for Karlovic at altitude in Bogota.

Indeed, Tomic has won all three previous meetings with Dr Ivo and the extra variety that the Aussie has in his game and familiarity of dealing with the Karlovic serve can see him over the line in this one at around 1.84/5.

That match is scheduled for around 8pm UK time and after that one I'll be backing Roberto Bautista Agut to win the all-Spanish clash with Feli Lopez.

The latter rarely impresses on anything other than grass these days and the slowish hard courts here in Toronto are unlikely to see Lopez progress very far this week.

Lopez has a poor record overall in the Rogers Cup, with his last win in Toronto coming back in 2008 and his only other victory here was in 2004 against Nicolas Escude, who now coaches Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

RBA landed a nice outright winner for us on the grass of Rosmalen and for me hard courts are his best surface, although he's won on clay and grass in what's been a stellar season for him.

Confidence will be high after winning Stuttgart in his first event after Wimbledon, so the change of surfaces doesn't seem to be an issue for him and Lopez was below par physically in a poor loss to Victor Estrella Burgos in Washington DC last week too.

It's their first career meeting, but RBA looks a good favourite here at around 1.584/7 to get the week off to a solid start.

Elsewhere today Tsonga takes a 7-0 head-to-head record into his match with Edouard-Roger Vasselin, while Marinko Matosevic will be watched carefully by many after quitting in qualies yesterday.

The Aussie had an inkling he was already in the draw as a lucky loser and in a situation that I'm sure was pure coincidence Mad Dog found a shoulder injury too much for him after a set against Thanasi Kokkinakis.

Matosevic is a 1.738/11 shot today and I have a feeling his shoulder might just be better after a spot of rest last night.

Recommended Bets
Back Tomic to beat Karlovic at 1.84/5
Back Bautista Agut to beat Lopez at 1.584/7