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We had a chance to get to know the young Maia better in Rio where she reached QFs and was supposed to beat Errani. She had three match points but the veteran somehow made it through. She was surprised by Maia's serving as well. It is therefore no surprise that she got through into main draw here, taking advantage of the high altitude. Herazo got a wildcard, she would not be here otherwise. She's not in Top 1100, never making it past second round at ITF tournaments. She won only 4 games against Mertens last week in similar conditions. I don't think much has changed. For comparison's sake, Maia played the Colombian whose ranking is almost identical to Herazo's. No only did she limit Herazo to three games but won allowed her only three points at return. Maia should sail through round two a well but she did poorly at break points (3/14). Molinero is Top 300 and much more experienced. We seem to be in for a very convincing win. Details

Becker is 8-25 on clay and he's a Top 50 player. Him and this surface are not getting along, with the slow conditions killing his strongest weapons - serve and aggressive game following it. That style is very hard to impose on clay, he's never done well in these conditions, which only goes to display his potential on this surface. Bautista-Agut, on the other hand, has just the game for this surface. He works hard, he's consistent, and knows how to force opponents into making mistakes. He, on other hand, doesn't make many. Clay is very important in factor in this match, and almost, Bautista beat Becker in a grass court ATP final last season when Becker was doing brilliantly. Bautista is doing much better on clay since that allows him to use his strong suit, while numbing Becker's style. I don't think the German will take more than 6 games here, not against someone like Bautista. Details

Since Goffin is now injury-free and has proved that he's headed for the top form, we can expect a lot from him. He's doing great and is clearly in for a great season. Not even the defeat to Nishikori is something he should regret because he did really good in it. Gombos is doing his best but isn't even close to Goffin's level. He had mediocre performances in Naples and had good qualifying draw here. Goffin is the better player and his game on clay will make that even more obvious. I expect him to win by at least 6 games, which makes this handicap margin really good. Details

It may not be logical to bet on a player who on a 7-match losing run but there are some circumstances that resulted in that streak. Most of the defeats were on hard court and indoors, which are not Kovalik's favorite conditions. he payed the price to trying and interestingly, no one beat him convincingly, even though he mostly played specialists for those conditions. The Slovak is a clay specialist. He won the challenger title on that surface last season and made it into Top 200 thanks to clay. Maybe he thought he can do well early in the season on other surfaces or maybe he couldn't make it to South America but the risk did not pay off. He probably couldn't wait for European clay court season to start. His opponent, on the other hand, is always doing better indoors. The Frenchman can play on cla, he has a futures title on it but taht will never be his best surface. He's 0-3 on clay and has not still good at CH level. He won only 4 games against Cecchinato in Naples last week, while Kovallik did much better on clay, which is why I think this should not be over 1.50, only because the Slovak is on a bad rhythm. Kovalik would be at 1.35 if this match was taking place last season. His defeats do play a role here but they mostly happened indoors and on hard court and cannot be a measure of his game on clay. This is his part of the season and Coucaud will be happy with what ever he gets today. Kovalik is ending his bad streak today. Details