{"id":873,"date":"2008-04-19T20:59:44","date_gmt":"2008-04-20T04:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/?p=873"},"modified":"2008-04-19T20:59:44","modified_gmt":"2008-04-20T04:59:44","slug":"atp-fantasy-tennis-picks-monte-carlo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/atp-fantasy-tennis-picks-monte-carlo\/","title":{"rendered":"ATP Fantasy Tennis Picks: Monte Carlo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Join us for the Monte Carlo final. We\u2019ll be blogging live on Sunday morning, April 27, at 6am (PST)\/9am (EST)\/3pm (CET).<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s time for the ATP Fantasy Tennis Season<\/a> so check out our Fantasy Tennis Guide<\/a>. You\u2019ll find Fast Facts, Strategies, and Statistics to help you play the game.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sign up<\/a> and join our subleague<\/a>! It\u2019s called tennisdiary.com. We send weekly email updates to all subleague members before the submission deadline.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The deadline for picking your team this week is SUNDAY, April 20, 5am EST, 11am CET.<\/p>\n

Okay, right off the bat, here\u2019s the deal. There are seven Masters Series tournaments (Monte Carlo, Rome, Hamburg, Canada, Cincinnati, Madrid, Paris) and three slams in this year\u2019s fantasy tennis season. That\u2019s three more Masters Series events than last year so you have to be smarter.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with Rafael Nadal because he\u2019s a bit easier. You have to pick him for Roland Garros and Wimbledon but he\u2019s only ever reached the quarterfinals at the U.S. Open and that prize money is $140,000. So I’d pick him for Roland Garros and Wimbledon and three Masters Series events. Remember, you can only pick a player five times in one season.<\/p>\n

Which Masters Series tournaments should you choose Nadal for? I\u2019m not exactly sure at the moment and I don\u2019t have much time to think about it because the ATP fantasy game moved its deadline up a day but, for sure, you should take Nadal for Monte Carlo. Later on we\u2019ll figure out whether to take him for all three clay court events or not.<\/p>\n

As for Roger Federer, you should pick him for all three slams and that leaves two Masters Series events. He\u2019s more likely to win Hamburg than either Monte Carlo or Rome and he can probably pick up one of the summer hard court events so I would not pick him for Monte Carlo.<\/p>\n

How about Novak Djokovic? Clearly you should pick him for all three slams and he won the Canadian Masters event last year so that leaves one more Masters event. I\u2019m not yet convinced that he\u2019s a good clay court player. He hasn\u2019t gone past the quarterfinals in any of the Masters clay events and he got to the French Open semifinals last year on a very easy draw. I may use him at something like Stuttgart, which pays well, because I imagine that Nadal will be very tired out by then.<\/p>\n

What to do with Nikolay Davydenko? I\u2019d use him at Roland Garros and the U.S. Open, so that leaves three Masters events. He doesn\u2019t have a good record at Monte Carlo and Juan Ignacio Chela has a 5-1 record over him so I\u2019ll save him for later.<\/p>\n

Who else would you pick if not those big players? Remember, we need eight players and that means we need two players from each quarter. Also keep in mind that many fantasy players will pick the top seeds in these early tournaments and have nothing left for later in the season. Your team might be ranked low now but you\u2019ll be ahead later on.<\/p>\n

Federer\u2019s Quarter<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m picking Nalbandian to beat Tommy Haas in the second round even though Haas is 3-0 over him because Nalbandian is 12-1 on clay so far this year. That means the big matchup is in the next round: David Nalbandian vs. Robin Soderling. Nalbandian did beat Soderling in Davis Cup last week but even though it was a home tie, it was such a tough five setter that Nalbandian was in tears afterwarda. I\u2019m taking Soderling because hasn\u2019t done much in slams and I can use Nalbandian later on.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m picking Fernando Verdasco as my second player from this quarter because he should get to the third round.<\/p>\n

Djokovic\u2019s Quarter<\/strong><\/p>\n

If not Djokovic, then who?<\/p>\n

Andy Murray has never been past the second round of the clay court Masters events. To add insult to injury, James Blake has beaten him on red clay. Filippo Volandri lost in the first round here the last two years but he\u2019s beaten Murray both times they\u2019ve played on clay, so he should get to the third round but I\u2019m not picking him and here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n

Richard Gasquet is a tough player to figure out. He\u2019s never been past the third round at Roland Garros and I don\u2019t expect that to change given his fragile psyche. You have to pick him for Wimbledon and I suppose we should wait and see about the U.S. Open. Not because he\u2019s done well there but because he could. That still leaves us three Masters events for him and he does well at Monte Carlo so I\u2019m picking him.<\/p>\n

Carlos Moya should get to the third round and meet up with Gasquet so one of them will get to the quarterfinals. Volandri, on the other hand, will probably go out to Djokovic and only reach the third round and that\u2019s why I\u2019m picking Gasquet and Moya.<\/p>\n

Davydenko\u2019s Quarter<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not picking Davydenko either so who will it be?<\/p>\n

Chela does okay at these clay Masters events when the opponent isn\u2019t too tough. Philipp Kohlschreiber got to the quarterfinals as a qualifier last year and then won Munich but he hasn\u2019t done anything on clay since so I\u2019m going to gamble that Davydenko is tired and Chela beats him and gets to the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

Oy, Nicolas Almagro and Juan Monaco could play each other in the second round. Almagro just beat Monaco in Valencia and he\u2019s in the final so he could be tired. Still, there\u2019s no one else in the top part of this quarter that excites me so Almagro it is.<\/p>\n

Nadal\u2019s Quarter<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am picking Nadal so let\u2019s see who I can pick in the top part of this quarter.<\/p>\n

David Ferrer has three quarterfinal appearances at Monte Carlo and Paul-Henri Mathieu has none. Now, should I save Ferrer for later on since he\u2019s unlikely to get past Nadal? I wouldn\u2019t use him at Wimbledon but I could use him at the French Open and the U.S. Open depending on his draw. He has also a good record at Cincinnati. That still leaves me two events and he is in the final at Valencia tomorrow so I\u2019m taking him.<\/p>\n

Monte Carlo Draw<\/a><\/p>\n

My Picks<\/strong><\/p>\n

Soderling, Verdasco, Gasquet, Moya, Chela, Almagro, Nadal, Ferrer<\/p>\n

Happy fantasies!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Join us for the Monte Carlo final. We\u2019ll be blogging live on Sunday morning, April 27, at 6am (PST)\/9am (EST)\/3pm (CET). It’s time for the ATP Fantasy Tennis Season so check out our Fantasy Tennis Guide. You\u2019ll find Fast Facts, Strategies, and Statistics to help you play the game. Sign up and join our subleague! […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}