Betting tips / Sean Calvert / 22 May 2012 / Leave a comment Bet Now View Market

Gilles Simon is a tough man to beat on any surface and Sean Calvert expects the consistent Frenchman to have a good crack at taking out the Nice Open.

This week, the major players take a break ahead of Roland Garros, but there is still a very decent field assembled in Nice for the Open de Nice Côte d'Azur, an ATP 250 event that is in its third year in its current run on the tour.

In the top half of the draw the seeds are John Isner, Gael Monfils, Bernard Tomic, and Denis Istomin and also in the mix in that top half are Nikolay Davydenko, Sam Querrey, Xavier Malisse, Sergiy Stakhovsky, Alejandro Falla, and Mikhail Kukushkin.

And there's also a welcome return to the main draw of an ATP Tour level tournament for Brian Baker, who has returned from a catalogue of injuries over the last five years.

The American won a Challenger on clay in Savannah a few weeks ago and had to win eight matches to do so, such was his ranking, which is now near the top-200 again.

But the top half of the draw looks tough to call with plenty in with chances if they're taking the event seriously enough...and not just using it purely for some court time ahead of next week's French Open.

Isner was disappointing in Rome and was fortunate to get past Philipp Kohlschreiber in his opening match before losing to Andreas Seppi and he'll be looking for some major improvement on the clay ahead of Roland Garros.

The big man has been backed as low as 80.0 for the French Open, which seems rather fanciful to me despite some good results on dirt this year, and after Madrid and Rome he's back out to Betfair Odds of 270.

Monfils has taken a wild card into this event, presumably after reviewing his performances on the clay so far this swing and deducing that he needs some serious match practice after an injury-marred season.

The Frenchman hasn't defeated a top-20 ranked player since January and lost in the quarter finals here last year to Potito Starace before going to Paris and beating David Ferrer, so I wouldn't be overly keen on backing Lamonf this week.

Tomic is still finding his feet on clay and doesn't seem to me to be great value at around 18.0 while Istomin hasn't won more than two matches in a row on clay in a tour level event since Hamburg in 2010.

In the bottom half of the draw Gilles Simon, Nico Almagro, Robin Haase, and Fabio Fognini are the seeded players and Thomaz Bellucci, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Benoit Paire and Steve Darcis are also in that section.

And of these, I like Simon at around 68.0 to come out on top in the city of his birth, rather than Almagro at 4.5.

Simon has not lost to a non-top 10 player since two defeats to Carlos Berlocq in what was a disappointing Golden Swing in South America back in February, and the former world number six has been somewhere close to his best this spring.

After reaching the semi finals in Monte-Carlo, Simon won in Bucharest and reached the third round on the blue clay of Madrid, before losing to his clay nemesis David Ferrer in Rome.

Defending champion, Almagro, should also be gunning for the title here, but I fancy that Simon's more defensive style will come out on top against the erratic Spaniard, should they meet in the semi finals.

Ferrero and Bellucci are obvious dangers in the bottom half of the draw and the former's head-to-head record over Simon is a concern, but they haven't played on clay for seven years.

Paire is interesting at a big price based on his surprise run to the final in Belgrade, but that has the feel of a one-off until he can back it up. Paire lost in the first round of the Challenger in Bordeaux last week to Florent Serra.

But Simon should be up for the fight this week on his return to his home town and on his debut in Nice I expect a strong performance from him.

BETFAIR Recommended Bet
Back Simon @6.0