DANIELA HANTUCHOVA
The third play happens to be my favorite:
DANIELA HANTUCHOVA (+140 @ DSI) over Nadia Petrova
I absolutely love it when really talented players (especially on the women's tour) have a string of crappy results and only to visit a tournament which suits their style of play and tear through the competition without warning, generally winning as a dog for the first four rounds at least. Today we have such a circumstance where Daniela Hantuchova (known far and wide as having the hottest legs on tour) comes up against (horseface) Nadia Petrova, the ladies ranked 25th and 18th respectively.
Hantuchova had a spectacular start to the month, reaching the finals at Monterrey, but got steamrolled by champion Pavlyuchenkova and then losing inexplicably in the first round of Indian Wells to a true mug, Roberta Vinci. Now she appears in Miami well-rested and looking determined, with a draw which gives her an easy road to the quarterfinals (save Petrova), something she has yet to do here in her career.
Petrova on the other hand has been playing a reduced schedule, not even making an appearance at Monterrey and losing in the third round at Indian Wells in an epic choke job to Wozniacki. Most important to note is that both women have played Patty Schnyder of Switzerland this month; Daniela won comfortably in straight sets while Nadia only squeaked out a win in the third set after playing 31 total games. Petrova's first opponent in Miami was nearly 40 year old Kimiko Date Krumm of Japan and that match was decided in a tiebreak.
Petrova simply doesn't have the recent form to get a win here today, and the bettors know it too. Petrova has defeated Hantuchova in all four previous meetings stretching back to 2003. However, Daniela opened at +160 last night and has been slowly dropping ever since, as it's obvious that this moment offers a prime setting for the upset. This was a gut feeling since I first saw it on the draw, and the odds dropping seems to confirm my hunch. This is my biggest play of the day, I could write another three paragraphs on why it makes sense.