Rajeev Ram takes on Ivan Navarro today in the first round at Newport and we make him a five star bet at 4/6 to win the match.
The Spaniard Navarro has hardly played on the ATP tour this season and is not a confirmed green stuff performer. He has been plying his trade on the challenger tour and for the main events he has been a qualifying or first round casualty. The only exception to this was on the red stuff at the Barcelona Open, where due to a first round bye and a second round victory he made the last sixteen. He has played Newport once a couple of years ago but didn’t trouble the judge. He is ranked at 148 in the World.
The Ram man is currently just under the 100 mark but he has three things in his favour that make him the puntinplay. Firstly he came through qualifying to win the tournament last year so he likes the event, secondly he is a confirmed grass court player and finally although his match record is poor – only three wins in sixteen outings - the quality of the opponent administering the defeat has been in a different league to the opposition Navarro has been facing. At Queens, where he made the last 32, he lost to Gasquet and he was a first round faller against Roddick at SW19.
He is trading at a best priced 4/6 (1.66) and on those terms he is a puntinplay
