Analysis for Schuettler-Devvarman (ATP Chennai)

Head-to-head record 0:0

German veteran Rainer Schuettler will play Indian hot gun Somdev Devvarman and even if Indian player has been impressive so far at the tournament, we think that his price in semis is foolish. We are not saying he cannot win today but his odds against experienced German should be somewhere around 3. Schuettler had a fascinating 2008 reaching his first career semifinal at Wimbledon by beating Santiago Ventura, James Blake, Guillermo Garcia Lopez, Janko Tipsarevic, and Arnaud Clement, his match with Clement was over 5 hours, completed in two days to reach the semi finals, losing to Rafael Nadal. His achievement was a big surprise, since he entered the tournament ranked 94th and with a streak of 13 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments without making it past the second round. He played several good matches since that time and proved he is still competitive enough. Schuettler started off his 2009 season at the Chennai open, beating Prakash Amritraj 6-2 4-6 6-1. In the 2nd round he beat Simon Greul 6-4 6-2, after that in the quarter final he defeated Bjorn Phau 6-2 7-5. In the semi-final he will face Somdev Devvarman. Indian is the reigning and two-time NCAA Men's Singles Champion. He also has a solid 2008. In August Devvarman made the quarterfinal of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic, first beating Sam Warburg, Jamie Baker and Go Soeda to qualify and then dispatching Taylor Dent and Robert Kendrick in the main draw before falling to Russian Igor Kunitsyn. As of September 8, 2008, Devvarman lost to world no. 18 Nicolas Almagro after winning the first set in the first round of the BCR Bucharest Open, having beaten 93rd-ranked Italian Filippo Volandri in the final round of qualifying. In January 2009, he caused major upsets against two-time Chennai Open former champion and world number 42 Carlos Moya of Spain and 25th ranked Ivo Karlovic of Croatia to storm into semi-finals of Chennai Open ATP tournament. His results are admirable but his price is too short today. At these odds, we will side with his German opponent who should be a clear favourite in our eyes.