Sean Calvert: Who to watch out for on the Asian swing

Pablo Andujar is not one to rely on in Asia

The ATP World Tour heads to Asia and tennis expert Sean Calvert has crunched the numbers to find the best and worst players in this section of the season...

The world's best male tennis players are in Asia for the next month, where plenty of titles, ranking points and cash are up for grabs in venues such as Beijing, Shanghai and Tokyo.

It also happens to be a matter of weeks away from the end of the season for many and some - such as Aussie whizz kid Nick Kyrgios - have already ended their 2014 campaigns.

It can be a bit of a minefield at this time of year trying to figure out who is trying to earn those titles and who is here for a bit of a holiday and nice pay cheque.

To that end I've assessed the results of the world's top-50 players to attempt to make the next few weeks in the Far East a little easier for punters.

What it has revealed - apart from what we already knew - such as Novak Djokovic having a great record in this section of the tour, is that there are a few players with very poor stats in Asia.

Jerzy Janowicz and Steve Johnson have never played a single match at tour level in Asia, while Leo Mayer has (at the time of writing) not won one in his two matches.

Pablo Andujar has won three matches in 16 in Asia, while Jeremy Chardy has won six from 18 and Fabio Fognini seven from 23.

Kevin Anderson's feet are up at this time of the season too, with the big South African posting a 7-10 mark in Asia, but the highest ranked player of the lot with a losing record in Asia is Grigor Dimitrov.

The talented Bulgarian has managed only five wins in his 14 matches on the Asian continent and he's only once been past the second round in tournaments held in China, Japan, Dubai and Thailand.

That was a quarter final appearance in Bangkok back in 2011 and the Wimbledon semi finalist has to record some better results this time around to avoid being labelled as a non-trier at this stage of the season.

Ernests Gulbis is another member of the top-20 with a poor record in Asia, with the Latvian having managed to compile a 12-15 mark, but that is a little misleading - at this time of the year it's actually worse.

In China he's 0-4 (total sets won = zero); in Japan he's 3-3; Thailand 2-3; and most of his wins have come in Dubai and Doha, so he's vulnerable at this time of the campaign.

Others to watch out for whose records are misleading are tour veterans Tommy Robredo and Lleyton Hewitt.

Rusty has a 31-15 record in Asia, but hasn't been past the second round anywhere on the continent since Tokyo in 2009.

Robredo has a similar recent record, with a 35-27 mark overall, but the Spaniard hasn't been past the second round in Asia since a third round loss in Shanghai also in 2009.

Perhaps one of the most surprisingly bad records in Asia is that of Yen-Hsun Lu - a man from Chinese Taipei, who, in theory, should be used to conditions and he does get a lot of wins here, but not at tour level.

Lu has just 19 wins from 50 matches on the tour in Asia, which puts him near the bottom of the win percentage table at 38 percent.

In terms of win percentage Djokovic tops the table with 87 percent, with Roger Federer and Andy Murray the only others with a win ratio of over 80 percent in Asia.

And perhaps surprisingly, Gael Monfils makes the top-10 with a winning mark of 67 percent in matches played in Asia.

Top-10 in career win percentage in Asia

1) Novak Djokovic 87%
2) Roger Federer 85%
3) Andy Murray 81%
4) Rafael Nadal 77%
5=) Tomas Berdych 69%
5=) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 67%
7=) Gael Monfils 67%
7=) Lleyton Hewitt 67%
7=) Richard Gasquet 67%
10) Marin Cilic 64%

Bottom-10 in career win percentage in Asia

1) Pablo Andujar 19%
2) Fabio Fognini 30%
3) Jeremy Chardy 33%
4) Grigor Dimitrov 36%
5) Yen-Hsun Lu 38%
5=) Lukas Rosol 38%
7=) Sam Querrey 40%
8) Kevin Anderson 41%
9) Ernests Gulbis 44%
10) Nicolas Almagro 44%

The swing began this week with ATP 250s in Kuala Lumpur and Shenzhen, with Murray and Gasquet from the top-10 heading up the betting at the Shenzhen Open.

Murray is currently a 2.35/4 shot for the title there, while Gasquet trades at around 10.09/1.

**Statistics based on the current top-50 players in the ATP World Tour rankings in tournaments played at tour level in Asia**