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2016-08-09 - Rafael Nadal vs Andreas Seppi
A Sports Betting Pick by Cruiser
Tennis: Olympic Games
9th August 2016 – Kickoff time 18:45
No doubt that the biggest upset on the second day of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro is that favourite and top seed Serbian Novak Djokovic was shown the exit by Argentinian J.M. Del Potro. It was a similar result four year ago as the Argentinian won 7-6, 7-6 then. Now Spaniard Rafael Nadal will fancy his chances against and Italian Andreas Seppi.
Nadal entered the Olympics this year as the 5th ranked player in the world having won two titles already this season in Monte Carlo and Barcelona where he defeated in finals G. Monfils and K. Nishikori. At the beginning of the season he played well in Doha but suffered defeat at the hands of by Djokovic where he managed to win only three games. At the Grand Slam - the Australian Open he suffered a surprise defeat to compatriot F. Verdasco.
In the tournaments of the clay courts at Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro Nadal went as far as the semi finals where he was stopped by D. Thiem and P. Cuevas. At the Masters in Indian Wells he reached the semi-finals once again only to be stopped by Djokovic once again. His last tournament before the Olympic Games was the Roland Garros where he reached the third round but he retired in the third round due to an injury against M. Granollers.
Meanwhile, since the start of the season Seppi has not showed any improvement of his form and it showed in his decline in the ATP rankings. He started the season at 29th position of ATP rank list but has now dropped to 71st, which only goes to show his poor current form. Throughout his 14 years of professional status Seppi won three ATP titles with the last two titles coming way back in 2012 at the tournaments in Belgrade and Moscow.
Seppi's best achievement this season is reaching the semi-finals at the tournament in Nottingham after his run came to an end at the hands of American S. Johnson 6-4, 6-4. At the Australian Open he reached the third round where he was beaten by Djokovic while at tournaments in Sofia, Nice and Halle, he reached the quarter-finals when he lost to M. Klizan, D. Thiem and F. Mayer, respectively.
Nadal heads the head to head between the two players by 6-1. Seppi won the only match in 2008 in Rotterdam 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, and since then Nadal has managed to win four times in a row and their last meeting was in Hamburg last year where Nadal won 6-1 and 6-2. Even though Nadal's form is questionable having just returned to avtive tennis after his injury but Seppi is not likely to cause any problems to Nadal unless he suffers from an unexpected injury here.
Go for Nadal and give the 1.5 Asian Handicap set betting at 1.54 with Pinnacle Sports.
The Pick :
Rafael Nadal 2-0 Andreas Seppi
