ATP World Tour Finals Betting: Fresher Cilic to prevail over Berdych at the o2

Marin Cilic can overcome a poor start to beat Berdych

Sean Calvert is not happy about the lack of quality witnessed at the World Tour Finals so far and he's hoping for better on Wednesday when Tomas Berdych and Marin Cilic clash at the 02...

The sequence of poor matches at this season's year end jamboree continued at the o2 on Tuesday, with an out of sorts Kei Nishikori coming up well short against Roger Federer.

The Swiss moves on to 13-0 in his career second round robin group matches at the World Tour Finals, but he didn't have to do a great deal, as poor serving and a glut of unforced errors from his opponent assisted greatly.

It's never a good sign when Nishikori calls for the trainer during the first set and a wrist problem was a significant factor in the US Open finalist's poor showing, but my outright tournament pick of Federer is highly likely to reach the semis now.

Federer would have been confirmed into the final four last night had Milos Raonic beaten Andy Murray, but yet again it was a really poor match and the Canadian was terrible in a two set loss.

Today's 2pm encounter doesn't at first sight suggest that it'll have punters racing down the Jubilee Line to the o2 to pack the arena out, as two players with a total of four games won between them go head-to-head.

Tomas Berdych and Marin Cilic were both beaten 6-1, 6-1 in their openers and each will see this as a second and probably last chance to make the semi finals.

Cilic was beaten by a very good display from Novak Djokovic on Monday night and it was by far the most convincing win that the Serb has ever had in the opening match of this tournament.

In Cilic's favour you could say that he was a little rusty after a few weeks away from the tour with an arm injury and he's entitled to come on for that match, which isn't necessarily something you could say about Berdych.

The Czech was horrific against Stan Wawrinka two days ago and he surely can't play as badly again, but he, like Andy Murray, put in a big late season effort to get here and there may not be much left in the tank.

Berdych's 5-9 record at this tournament isn't inspiring and neither is his recent set of results against Cilic, who beat Berdych in straight sets at Wimbledon and the US Open this summer, after the Czech won indoors in Rotterdam in their other 2014 clash.

Cilic has won eight of the last 10 sets that the pair have contested and he should be the one with the most enthusiasm for this tournament in his first year here.

The way the results have gone this week I'm tempted by the 2.809/5 about the 2-0 to Cilic, but after the way both players showed up in their opening matches this could be anything and the safer choice looks to be the 1.845/6 about any Cilic win.

Recommended Bet
Back Cilic to beat Berdych at 1.845/6