Tuesday Tennis

I have no idea what the time zone differences are for these tournaments and made no effort to figure it out, so you're on your own. For all I know, they could start at 3 AM or tomorrow afternoon. The picks:

Johannesburg

F. Cipolla -130 (Bookmaker) over M. Chiudinelli, 0.65 units to win 0.50 units

The line movement would suggest that I'm wrong on this one, so probably should pass. But, Cipolla should beat the qualifier rather easy on the hardcourt tomorrow.

Zagreb

M. Zverev +174 (BetUS) over A. Seppi, 0.50 units to win 0.87 units

OK, line movement here is much better and is favoring the German (Zverev). He is a good hardcourt player, but because Seppi is the #6 seed, we're getting a good number here even though this is not Seppi's preferred surface.

S. Bolleli -130 (Matchbook) over V. Troicki, 0.65 units to win 0.50 units

Bolleli made the semi-finals here last year on the indoor courts, but to be fair, he was beaten in the semi-finals by the same guy (Stakhovsky) that beat Troicki in the 2nd round. Still, Bolleli is definitely the better overall player and the line has been growing over the past several hours, so somebody out there agrees with me.

S. Stakhovsky -110 (WSEX) over D. Hrbaty, 0.55 units to win 0.50 units

The 30-year-old Hrbaty has a more recognizable name after his long career, but his best days are behind him. A good surface for his young Ukrainian opponent, and, oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention that Stakhovsky is the defending champion at this event.

For basketball/football, most books will have the exact same lines for most of the games, but in tennis, it really pays to shop around and have multiple outs. As you can see, each of those four lines was found at a different sportsbook, and the differences among the books were pretty significant for a couple of those matches. And if you're not American and can use Pinnacle, those are often the best lines out there (dammit). Good night everybody.