US Open 2014 Men's Betting: Llodra can roll back the years against Kohlschreiber

Has Llodra got enough left to worry Kohlschreiber?

Sean Calvert has been in superb form so far at the US Open, with eight winners from eight daily bets, and he's back to run the rule over Thursday's card in New York...

Feliciano Lopez kept the unbeaten run in my daily tips so far this US Open going in slightly fortuitous circumstances on Wednesday when Ivan Dodig retired in the fifth set of their opening round match.

It had looked like the game was up for Lopez, who was poor to start with, and the Spaniard only really got going in the latter stages of the fourth set.

That coincided with Dodig calling the trainer minutes later and from there the Croat offered his hand two games into the decider.

Then it was up to Joao Sousa to keep the run going and he just about managed it against Frank Dancevic in a final set tie breaker after failing to serve it out at 5-3 prior to that.

There was misfortune and disappointment for my potential upsets though when Marcos Baghdatis had to retire due an ankle injury he sustained a few days before his match with Cilic, while Lleyton Hewitt wasn't up to it against Tomas Berdych.

Andy Murray is in action today after a couple of days off and he will be anxious to avoid the bizarre showing he treated us to the other day when the Brit cramped badly and almost terminally as far as his US Open chances were concerned.

Fortunately for Murray he had the brain of Robin Haase to rely upon across the net and the flaky Dutchman was never going to press home the advantage that he had over the former champ at that time.

Today he faces what should be a routine clash with Matthias Bachinger, who took down the ageing Czech Radek Stepanek, as the man across the net today.

Murray has become incredibly tough to bet on of late - even more so than he already was - with various parts of his body and or/brain seizing up at some most inopportune times this season.

Bachinger described his performance in the win over Stepanek modestly by exclaiming, "I played unbelievable - my best match ever."

The German did serve well, but he hasn't faced Murray since they were 14-year-olds in juniors and if you're staying up for this midnight UK time start I wouldn't be putting much on Andy at 1.091/11 here.

If he serves well again the +8.5 games on Bachinger could work, but there's too much guesswork with Murray's fitness just now.

Statistically one of the best bets of the day has to be John Isner to win set one 7-6 over Jan-Lennard Struff at a tempting 6.05/1.

Of his 29 completed matches on hard courts in 2014, Isner has won set one 7-6 nine times, so it has to be value to side with that as a Cash Out option against an opponent today who also serves quite big.

It looks a day to be a little circumspect as far as match odds go, with the likes of Murray, Novak Djokovic, Kei Nishikori, Milos Raonic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga all looking very likely winners.

Tsonga may be another to look at the tie break in set one in though, as his opponent Aleksandr Nedovesov can serve in the 130mph range too and with Jo not exactly excelling on return the 9.08/1 is decent about Tsonga 7-6 there too.

He's won set one 7-6 five times in 18 hard court matches in 2014, so that also makes sense today against an opponent who can serve big.

Three matches appeal to me to go long today and they are Sam Querrey vs Guillermo Garcia Lopez, Fernando Verdasco vs Andrey Kuznetsov and Philipp Kohlschreiber vs Michael Llodra.

It's forecast to be 24C at 11am local time when Kohlschreiber and Llodra face off on Court 5 and that shouldn't be too hot, but conditions will still be quick, which gives the veteran a chance here.

For me Kohlschreiber is miles too short here given his flaky nature and the pair had a real battle here two years ago involving 43 games, yet the overs is 34.5 today.

Clearly, Llodra isn't the player he was on a regular basis these days, but he can still play when he wants to and I'd be surprised if he didn't have enough to force the mentally brittle German past the overs here.

Recommended Bet
Back over 34.5 total games in Kohlschreiber/Llodra at 1.9010/11

Best Cash Out Opportunities
Back Isner to win set one 7-6 at 6.05/1
Back Tsonga to win set one 7-6 at 9.08/1

Tennis profit and loss – 2014 season

Profit based on 10 stake per bet = + 1010.30