So far in our guide to finding winners on the ATP Tour we've highlighted a variety of considerations such as past event form, seedings, age, the effect of different playing surfaces and, probably the most important factor of all, the draw.
Here we add another aspect to the selection process, that of a player's nationality.
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Spanish players have won a third of all
ATP Tour events so far this year |
Of course, with tennis being an individual sport, it matters little that a player comes from a country which has no tradition of success ... for example, how many former Grand Slam champions had Switzerland produced before Roger Federer came along?
Same applies, to a lesser extent, with Andy Murray (Great Britain), Marcos Baghdatis (Cyprus) and Ernests Gulbis (Latvia).
We're now 54 tournaments into the 2010 schedule and there's little surprise to see Spain top the list with 18 wins.
Next come the USA (9) and France (4) with Switzerland, Croatia and Argentina (3) next on the list. The only other countries to have been responsible for more than one tour win are Russia, Great Britain, Serbia and the Ukraine (2).
Sweden, Cyprus, Australia, Brazil, Latvia and Kazakhstan complete the list with one title winner from each nation.
On top of these nations there can also be added the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria , Belgium, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Uzbekistan. All these countries have had losing finalists this year.
That's a total of 25 nations who have between them provided every tournament winner and every runner-up so far in 2010.
Example: Rafael Nadal (Tokyo) WON 5/6
Nadal's success here was title No.7 for the Spaniard in 2010. Having won tennis Masters Series titles in Monte Carlo, Rome and Madrid, the 24-year-old added Grand Slams at the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open before landing the Japan Open.
Those seven wins have been added to by Juan Carlos Ferrero (3), Nicolas Almagro, Albert Montanes and Fernando Verdasco (2) then David Ferrer and Feliciano Lopez with one apiece. That's 18 wins for Spain ... the first country you should look at when deciding your outright bets.
As we said previously, the individual nature of tennis allows certain players to buck these national trends and effectively over-perform in relation to their country's profile ... you can't just say if a guy from Holland takes on a player from Chile then the European will win every time (many other factors need to be considered).
However, there are specific countries which can be relied upon time and again to provide the best players like Spain, like the USA, France and Russia etc.
Don't follow them blindly, that would be a mistake, but an awareness of these 'geographical advantages' can be an aid to outright, as well as match, betting.
