BNP Paribas Open Betting: Bautista-Agut to ease past Sock at Indian Wells

Roberto Bautista-Agut can tame the Jack Sock serve

The third round completes at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on Tuesday and tennis expert Sean Calvert is back to find some value on day six in the desert...

John Isner landed my headline tip comfortably on Monday at a decent price, given the conditions, and it would have been a much better day had I opted for the set handicap rather than games handicap on Philipp Kohlschreiber.

The latter put in a shocker of a first set to all but lose the games handicap against Andy Murray, but came back well to win set two, before collapsing again in set three.

Novak Djokovic was also made to struggle far more than was expected against the limited Albert Ramos, raising concerns among his fans over his troublesome foot/ankle injury.

My remaining outright pick, the huge-priced Alexandr Dolgopolov faces Milos Raonic today in a repeat of last year's comfortable win for Dolgo and he has a decent chance of beating the Canadian again.

I'm hopeful on that one, while Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer should both ease through tonight, along with Tomas Berdych and Roberto Bautista-Agut.

The latter faces Jack Sock in an 8pm UK time clash and I like the Spaniard to get through here covering the minus 3.5 game handicap.

Sock has done very well to get through two rounds here after a long time out with a hip problem, but a gruelling clash with Gilles Muller last time out is likely to have put a dent in his fitness.

RBA has dealt well with Sock in their previous two career meetings and the four sets he has won against the American have been 6-2, 6-1, 6-1, and 6-3, with RBA breaking Sock nine times in their two matches.

The Spaniard's solid hitting has worked well at Indian Wells so far, with four wins from his six matches here in the three years he's played here and he began well again with a cosy win over Denis Istomin in round one.

Bautista-Agut is likely to make too many balls for Sock and get too many back in these slow conditions for the American's heavy hitting to have much of an effect and the 1.84/5 about an RBA win -3.5 games looks good.

I also like the over total games in Gilles Simon's 8pm clash with Michael Berrer, with Gillou holding a record of three straight sets wins in 19 matches at Indian Wells.

Berrer has caused problems for Simon in the past, with both of their prior meetings ending in final set tie breaks and the Frenchman looks way too short at 1.232/9 to win this at a venue he admits to struggling at.

Veteran German leftie Berrer will be buzzing for this after a win (admittedly aided by injury) over Richard Gasquet last time and, at 34, he won't have many more chances at this level.

Simon has never beaten a leftie at Indian Wells and last time lost to Brian Dabul. There's enough here to expect Berrer to make this tough - or for Simon to make it tough for himself.

Elsewhere, I don't think I'd willingly bet on Robin Haase vs Lukas Rosol in a month of Sundays. I'll stick to two wagers today.

Recommended Bets
Back Bautista-Agut -3.5 games to beat Sock at 1.84/5
Back over 20.5 total games in Simon/Berrer at 1.845/6