BNP Paribas Masters 2014 Betting: Kohlschreiber to make a fast start against new dad Djokovic

Kohlschreiber can make life tough for Djokovic early on

Number one seed Novak Djokovic makes his tournament debut in Paris on Tuesday and Sean Calvert expects it to be a tough test for the Serb against Philipp Kohlschreiber...

We managed to get off to a good start in Bercy on Monday when Sam Querrey eased past the handicap mark for a winner on day one of the BNP Paribas Masters over Jerzy Janowicz.

The American, who with that victory chalked up his 20th straight win in all competitions, had to come back from losing the opener on a tie break, but he kept his serve intact throughout and was always the more solid of the two players.

Novak Djokovic and Tomas Berdych are among the top-10 stars beginning their campaigns on Tuesday and it could well be worth taking the Serb on his opening match against Philipp Kohlschreiber.

Djokovic, who became a father last week, will more than likely win this match, but 1.121/8 is very short against a dangerous opponent, who has beaten and taken sets from Djokovic in the past.

Kohlschreiber tuned up well yesterday by comfortably defeating another new dad in Edouard Roger-Vasselin and he has taken at least a set from Djokovic in four of their six meetings.

A supremely talented ball striker when he's on form Kohlschreiber, unfortunately for him and his backers, has an alarming tendency to falter from winning positions, but he can certainly give Nole a scare in this 18:30 UK time match.

Djokovic hasn't played for three weeks and has clearly had other things on his mind, so the set one to Kohlschreiber is a good choice at 5.59/2, as is the 2-1 to Djokovic if you fancy him to come through.

That's a 5.59/2 shot as well and the Kohlschreiber to win any set is also appealing at 3.55/2, but the likelihood is the German will need to win the opener.

Unfortunately for me and my fellow Gael Monfils backers it would appear that after saying he was "100% fit" Monfils actually meant that his knee is still a major problem and he may not even play his scheduled match with Joao Sousa today.

Ironically, Monfils's last match on tour - the one where he got the knee problem - was against Sousa as well and the Portuguese scrapper might well get lucky twice in a row.

Of the early 10am UK time starts I thought about Pablo Cuevas as underdog against Leo Mayer, but Cuevas is yet another who became a father last week and may not fancy hanging around in Paris at the end of a long season in those circumstances.

Jeremy Chardy played well last week in similar conditions in Valencia and really should have beaten Tommy Robredo in the semi finals there and he should be too good in these slowish conditions for the walking serve of Kenny de Schepper.

Robredo himself has a rough turnaround after that epic Valencia final against Murray when he takes on Vasek Pospisil, but don't count him out of that one as underdog against the Canadian, who was awful last week.

Recommended Bet
Back Kohlschreiber to win set one at 5.59/2