Somdev Devvarman and Milos Raonic will be locking horns in the Sony Ericsson Open 2011, in the Miami second round on Friday. Last year in the Tashkent Challenger, came their only earlier encounter, where Raonic triumphed 6-4, 7-6(5).

After an incredible beginning to 2011, Canada’s top-ranked talent has reached a career-best No. 34 world ranking. When he overpowered Fernando Verdasco in the final of the SAP Open in San Jose in February, he became the first Canadian to capture an ATP World Tour title. At the ATP event in Memphis, he was the finalist. He lost to American Andy Roddick in a hard three-set final.

Somdev Devvarman is at present India’s top player and at the moment, the former NCAA tennis champion is enjoying a form surge of his own. It will be a fascinating matchup between the two. Last month, he made the Johannesburg final and on his way to the Indian Wells fourth round, he shocked Marcos Baghdatis. He has moved up to a career high ranking of 73. He has been improving and appears to be a different player over the years.

Devvarman will force the young Canadian to show a lot of persistence and to hit plenty of balls. He is a spirited counter-puncher and will give the Canadian a strong fight; however, Devvarman’s chances of breaking Raonic’s serve are far less than Raonic’s opportunities of breaking Devvarman’s serve.

The sportsbooks are offering great basketball odds for this match. The best odds for Milos Raonic are (8/15), while for Somdev Devvarman (11/6).

Andy Roddick · ATP · Milos Raonic · Somdev Devvarman

India has some reprieve in their Davis Cup World Group opener against defending champions Serbia as World no.3 Novak Djokovic will stay out from the contest. In front of a home crowd in Belgrade in the 2010 final, the Australian Open victor led Serbia to a momentous triumph over France. Djokovic will be focusing on the U.S. hard-court season and consequently has opted out of the March 4-6 first-round world group tie.

The visiting side’s self-belief did draw a little boost in the Thursday’s draw. The visitors will be playing without their star players Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes.

On Thursday, the World Group first round was declared. Ranked 629 in singles, Rohan Bopanna will be facing a stronger challenger. Only during the Davis Cup, the doubles specialist on the tour, beckoned for singles responsibility and he will start the proceedings against Viktor Troicki. Bopanna’s rival Troicki is positioned 17 in the ATP rankings.

Somdev Devvarman has squashed some of the top-50 players previously and he, in recent times reached a career-best 80. He has the capability to push Janko Tipsarevic in the other singles match on Friday. Tipsarevic is at present ranked 45. Expect Somdev to give some hard-hitting fight to Janko.

According to various tennis betting odds, the best bet for Janko Tipsarevic (1/7) against Somdev Devvarman (13/2) and Viktor Troicki is (1/25) vs. Rohan Bopanna (14).

For the second straight year, India secured their place in the privileged 16 by overpowering Brazil 3-2 at home in the World Group play-off and a defeat will definitely pull them back in the play-off round. The two countries are tied 1-1. When Serbia played as Yugoslavia in 1988, they beat India 3-2 in New Delhi. In 1927, India had witnessed a win by beating them 3-0 in Zagreb.

ATP · Davis Cup · Leander Paes · Mahesh Bhupathi · Novak Djokovic

This past week, by defeating his top rival Rafael Nadal at the ATP World Tour Finals in London, Roger Federer finished the tennis season on a high note.

By winning all four between them both players dominated men’s tennis major tournaments this year. With Federer making it 16 major titles by winning the Australian Open title, Nadal won the French Open, U.S. open and Wimbledon. In order to win 21 of the last 23 majors, both competitors have combined together.

Federer who has lost 14 of 22 matches played against Nadal, the victory in the ATP provides some sense of payback for him. Rafael now holds the top position to Federer’s number two spot, as he has also ended Roger’s long time dominance of the number one ranking in men’s tennis.

By Federer winning all three, they have met three times in this season-ending tournament. By only dropping 13 points in the entire match which was won in three sets by a score of 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, he dominated his service points on Sunday. Federer appeared to upset the Spaniard by keeping the points short and staying on the offensive throughout the match as Nadal could only manage one break of server in the second set.

As he appeared to tire late in the match, a three-hour semifinal against Andy Murray the previous day may have contributed to Nadal’s loss. Nadal, to his credit praised Federer for the way he played all week and did not mention this as the reason.

ATP · French Open · Rafael Nadal · Roger Federer · U.S. Open