ATP Bank of Austria: Home favorite bids for a spot in the quarters

Vienna, Austria – Seventh seed Jurgen Melzer will aim to land a spot in the quarters when he takes on qualifier Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia in the second round on Thursday. Melzer will be looking to join second seed Radek Stepanek, fourth seed Philipp Kohlschreiber and fifth seed Nicolas Almagro in the quarters after they all advanced on Wednesday.

Tennis Betting Line: Jurgen Melzer   -400         Dominik Hrbaty     +250   

Match Time: 01:30 PM Eastern Time Thursday October 29, 2009

Tennis Betting Trends: World No. 35 Jurgen Melzer of Austria owns a 1-0 edge over veteran Dominik Hrbaty. Their one and only clash came way back in 2004 at the ATP Masters Canada wherein Melzer took a hard fought 4-6, 7-5, 7-6(3) win. At that time, Hrbaty had been in his prime and in the same year had reached a career high ranking of No.12.

Today it is a different story for the now 31-year-old Hrbaty. He ranks No.166 in the world, boasts a 3-6 mark in ATP play – although allowance has to be made for that mark as these days he coasts under the radar in the lower circuits as a semi-retired pro.

Melzer enters this match as not only the crowd favourite but also the bookies favourite. Melzer has home edge going for him as well as a current run of good form. Not to mention a significant ranking edge and a slim H2H edge.

Melzer arrives in Vienna on the back of a semi-final finish in Bangkok and back-to-back R16 finishes in Tokyo and Shanghai. Overall, Melzer is 32-29 on the season.

This match is on Melzer’s racquet and with all the indicators in his favour he should take the victory with relative ease.

Tennis Free Picks: Melzer -400 in straight sets