Belgiam Authom has been moving up the rankings and  has put in some decent performances this year, reaching a Challenger final in Rimouski and a quarter-final in Bergamo. Given Mannarino’s problems and form, Authom looks a live outsider here to cause a small upset and make the semi-finals.

Free Tennis Betting Tips recommends: Maxime Authom @ 2.00 with Bet Victor – use our link and claim a free £25 bet!

Sports Betting

Mello is a practised top 100 campaigner, though he has fallen down the rankings a little, while Gard has never been able to have a significant impact on tour.

Even though he has not had a particularly solid start to 2012, there should be too much of a gap here in class to allow Mello to come through with a straight sets, which is fairly priced at 1.80 with Stan James.

Free Tennis Betting Tips recommends: Ricardo Mello @ 1.80 with Stan James - use your link and claim £10 free!

The first is Kevin Anderson, who takes on Mardy Fish. The American hasn’t managed back to back wins on Tour so far this season and in Marseille he found one big server in Albano Olivetti too much to handle.  Though the courts here are slower, Anderson offers a testing serve and a slightly under-rated back of the court game that is more than capable of putting a grumpy Fish in trouble. Anderson took down the Delray Beach title and he can hardly be cursed for losing to Novak Djokovic last time out. He looks worth a bet a greater than 2.00. Fish may have won their US Open meeting but there were two tie-break sets and his confidence was much higher then.

Free Tennis Betting Tips recommends: Kevin Anderson to beat Mardy Fish @ 2.20 with Stan James – use our link and claim a free £25 bet

We’re also prepared to take a small risk in the Fernando Verdaco-Nicolas Almagro match which all bookmakers have priced up as a close one. Verdasco has shown partial signs of a revival this season, with a decent run in Auckland and also making the finals of the Acapulco tournament. Almagro had a good run in Indian Wells, taking out Tomas Berdych for a fine hard court win – but that perhaps has been shown up by his defeat to Grigor Dimitrov. Verdasco beat his fellow Spaniard in Acapulco, and leads their head to head, even ahead of a first hard court meeting, so that leans us to Verdasco.

Free Tennis Betting Tips recommends: Fernando Verdasco @ 1.90 with Sporting Bet – use our link and claim a free £50 bet!

The German Matthias Bachinger has a good chance to beat Rajeev Ram. Bachinger has become settled in the lower reaches of the top 100, and has a solid, if quite attacking game. In fact, he probably does what his opponent Rajeev Ram does, just a little better. Bachinger picked up a good win over Ruben Bemelmans in his first match, while Ram scored a more expected victory over Russian Michael Elgin. He also has a win in their sole meeting, on hard courts.

So we fancy the German to come through here, with Boylesports more generous than everyone else by some way.

Free Tennis Betting Tips recommends: Matthias Bachinger @ 1.62 with Boylesports – use our link and claim a free £20 bet!

There’s a tight looking match up between Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi and Spain’s Roberto Bautista-Agut. Lorenzi has shown some steady form on hard courts, reaching the final of the Guadalajara Challenger and easing through his opening match here. Bautista won a very narrow first round match with Rik de Voest, with the South African claiming the Spaniaard resorted to underhand tactics. These two have never met, and both are happy enough on hard surfaces, but the price on Lorenzi seems very fair given his recent consistent peformances.

Free Tennis Betting Tips recommends: Paolo Lorenzi @ 1.87 with Boylesports – use our link and claim a free £20 bet!

The match up between Roger Federer and Juan Martin Del Potro offers some interest. Federer has admitted to being under the weather this week, and found life unexpectedly hard against Thomaz Bellucci in his last sixteen match, where the hard hitting but erratic Brazillian extended him into three sets. Del Potro has been beaten three times by the Swiss player this year but given the slow courts that he can hit through, this is his best chance to cause some kind of upset, or at least take Federer into a deciding set. So we’ll go for Del Potro with the benefit of the handicap.

Free Tennis Betting Tips recommends: Juan Martin Del Potro +3.5 games @ 1.80 wth Bet VIctor - use our link to open an account and claim a free £25 bet!

The unusual conditions at the Challenger event in Sarajevo have lead to some interesting opportunities. No one seems to be handling the super fast courts better than Jamaican-German Dustin Brown who has been thumping down aces and who’s style of short points fits in with the conditions perfectly. He’s up against qualifier Nikola Cacic, who has also been usng a big serve. But the man they call “Dreddy Tennis” looks a fair price here for a straight sets win after his impressive victory over Philipp Oswald.

Free Tennis Betting Tips recommends: Dustin Brown @ 1.91 to win 2-0 v Nikola Cacic with Bet 365 - use our link to claim up to £200 in free bets.

Another big server with something like home advantage here is the excitable Serb Ilija Bozoljac, who has practised with their Davis Cup team. Bozoljac won in three tie-break sets over another player with ace potential in Marius Copil of Romania and he has every chance here of another win against the Czech Jan Mertl, who has struggled this season at Challenger level. Bozo’s stronger serve ought to do the business here.

Free Tennis Betting Tips recommends: Ilija Bozoljac @ 1.62 with Paddy Power – use our link to claim a free bet of up to £50!

While Simon has shown some signs of life this week, beating Stan Wawrinka, some of that is thought to be to the unpleasant stomach bug that has been going round leaving many players at less than a hundred percent. Harrison, a much touted hope, has produced two very good wins in easily beating Viktor Troicki and then seeing off Andy Murray’s conqueror Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, and he has every chance of outlasting his French opponent here at fair odds.

Free Tennis Betting Tips recommends: Ryan Harrison @ 2.20 with Bet 365 – use our link and claim up to £200 in free bets.

Meanwhile, in Challenger play in Rabat, Italy’s Alessandro Giannessi looks to have a good chance of a fair priced win against opponent Simon Greul. The German is having a rough year, and the up and coming Italian is showing some signs of improvement after a slow start to 2011. He shot on to the Challenger scene last year, and although he needs to work on his backhand, he has the ability to see of Greul at a price which Paddy Power may regret.

Free Tennis Betting Tips recommends: Alessandro Giannessi @ 1.72 with Paddy Power – use our link and claim a £50 free bet.

So a bet on this being over 21.5 games with Bet 365 looks absolutely irresistible here – with so many sets in this Challenger going to tie-breaks, it seems excellent value and we would consider this is a maximum bet.

Free Tennis Betting Tips recommends: Over 21.5 games on Brown/Oswald @ 1.80 with Bet 365 – use our link and claim up to £200 on free bets

Carlos Berlocq, seen as a clay court specialist, looks tempting value against French player Benoit Paire. Berlocq had an excellent Golden Swing in South America on the clay and has moved inside the world’s top 40. While having a reputation as poor on other surfaces, there is no doubt his all round game is improving and there is also no doubt he is mentally stronger than Paire, who is always likely to have the kind of mad five minutes that can cost him key points. So Berlocq is our pick here.

Free Tennis Betting Tips recommends: Carlos Berlocq @ 1.80 with Sporting Bet – use our link and get a free bet of up to £50

One other player we like is Denis Istomin, who is getting back to his best form after dipping down to the Challenger circuit for the latter part of 2011. He reached the final of the San Jose event earlier this year, and his opponent, Yen-Hsun Lu, is a man who’d like a faster surface than is traditionally produced here. Lu is also re-adjusting after playing in Asian Challengers, so Istomin should have enough to win this contest.

Free Tennis Betting Tips recommends: Denis Istomin @ 1.50 with Bet Victor – use our link and get a free bet of up to £25.

We’ll start with the top seed in qualifying, Frederico Gil, who faces Ruben Bemelmans of Belgium. Gil’s trip into the third round of the Australian Open offers encouragement, and after a couple of early exits, he did well to quickly dismiss Alex Kuznetsov yesterday and we think he can see off the Belgian here, who has suffered a couple of recent first round losses.

Free Tennnis Betting Tips recommends: Frederico Gil @ 1.57 with Paddy Power – use our link and claim a free £50 bet.

In the battle of the consistent against the talented but up and down, we’ll be backing Bjorn Phau to beat Andrey Golubev. Phau has won 2 Challenger titles already this year, while Golubev is showing odd flashes of his best form, he doesn’t entirely have his game back to the shape which would see off the German at his very best.

Free Tennis Betting Tips recommends: Bjorn Phau @ 1.87 with Bet Victor – use our link to claim a free £25 bet.

In Challenger play in Santiago, Alejandro Gonzalez should be backed to beat Leonardo Kirche. The two look fairly closely matched but qualifier Kirche won his 1st Round match with Blaz Kavcic 3-6 7-6 6-3, in a little more than FOUR hours. That must surely weigh on him here.

Free Tennis Betting Tips recommends: Alejandro Gonzalez @ 1.83 with Bet Victor

In another match, Challenger winner Guido Pella almost looks like his goose his cooked after his win last week in Salinas. He had another long three setter yesterday and should be ready to fall to the usually steady Rogerio Dutra Silva.

Free Tennis Betting Tips recommends: Rogerio Dutra Silva @ 1.50 with Bet 365 – use our link and claim up to £200 in Free Bets