Andy Murray starts Indian Wells Tennis Quest

Andy Murray will start his quest for Indian Wells glory on Sunday, but again, as in top tier tournaments like this, his path to the final is not going to be an easy one. Murray opens his account against Italy’s Andreas Seppi, which he will be expected to win of course, and then it is on to the third round where the road starts to get tougher. Murray is seeded 4th for the tournament, and ranked 4th in the world. Unlike the women’s Indian Tournament, where there are top seeds missing, all of the world’s best is in California for this one. Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Nikolai Davydenko and Novak Djokovic are all there. The first seeded player Murray is likely to run into is Igor Andreev, who Murray thrashed in the Hopman Cup earlier in the year, dropping only one game in a 6-1, 6-0 victory.

Murray (7/2 at Stan James to win outright) will face potential fourth round opponents at Indian Wells, this first ATP 1000 tournament of the season, in Ivo Karlovic (23) or David Ferrer (13). Murray has beaten Karlovic in all three encounters, including a 2008 win at Indian Wells over the Russian. Spain’s David Ferrer is tied a 1-1 with Murray in their head-to-head record, but the last time they played was back in 2006. Ferrer isn’t in too bad form for 2010, winning one title, and 14 of his 20 matches played, and 11 of the last 12. That is all the stands in the way of Murray in his quarter of the top half of the draw. Which means that in the fifth round, he will potentially come up against Sweden’s Robin Soderling. Soderling is the top seed (6th) in the fourth quarter of the top half of the draw has should have fairly easy passage through to meet Murray in the quarter finals. The only other name there is that of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who may pose a threat, but the world number 11 isn’t quite in the same class as Murray or Soderling on top of their games.

The Indian Wells semi final for the top half of the draw, could see Murray pitted against his conqueror in the final of the Australian Open Gran Slam, world number one Roger Federer (15/8 outright at Stan James). There seems little to trouble the great Swiss star in his half of the draw. He has Radek Stepanek in the first quarter with him, and potential quarter final opponent will be American Andy Roddick, seeded 7th for the tournament. Roddick has hardly stopped to catch his breath this year, and should be a safe bet to reach the fourth round, where he will probably run into Gael Monfils (or Moonfish as my spell-check comically corrects his name to). So, a Federer v Murray clash seems more than likely a the semi final stage, but of course there is a lot of work to be done between the second round and the semi. All of the betting previews can be followed here, and the live streaming action can be enjoyed with online bookmaker Bet365, who provide free live tennis for customers with positive funded accounts.

In all honesty, the bottom half of the draw looks to be the one which will be hotly contested through the round, with Nikolay Davydenko, Fernando Verdasco, Marin Cilic, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal (5/1 outright at Extrabet) being the pick of the bunch down there. Nadal, seeded 3rd for the tournament (as he is number 3 in the world at the moment behind Federer and Djokovic) looks to have the easiest passage. The Spaniard is the defending champion at Indian Wells, and is looking to win the title for the third time. The potential is there for a mouth watering quarter final match against Nikolay Davydenko though.

Andy Murray to win: 1/12 at Coral
Andreas Seppi to win: 8/1 at Bet365