Big-serving Guccione set to outgun Cuevas.

Byline: Scott Samuels

CHRIS GUCCIONE looks banker material and is expected to have far too many guns for Pablo Cuevas in the US Open first round today.

The lanky Australian had been having a year to forget until the third week of July, when he finally showed some form to win the Aptos challenger event in California. Although that was a very weak tournament he then produced his best form of the year in Cincinnati, progressing through qualifying before beating Philipp Kohlschreiber and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the Masters 1000 event.

The Australian No. 2 has one of the biggest serves in the men's game. Despite having played only 14 times on the main tour this year he has still managed to serve 194 aces, and if he can reproduce that kind of serving against Cuevas he will be very difficult to beat.

Cuevas rarely plays on anything other than clay courts. The Uruguayan has played two hardcourt matches this year, winning one. The world No. 68 is unlikely to have played anyone on clay that could have prepared him for the power of Guccione's serves, and to go from red-dirt returning to the potential barrage from Guccione is asking too much.

The 4-7 about Guccione looks decent value and the 6ft 7in Australian should be backed with confidence.

Karol Beck's match against Maximo Gonzalez has a similar profile to the Guccione v Cuevas contest in that Beck is a fairly solid hard-court performer and Gonzalez has hardly played any matches on the surface.

Beck has had a difficult couple of years since he returned from a two-year drugs ban towards the end of 2007. The Slovakian reached a career-high ranking of 36 in 2005 before his suspension dropped him outside of the top 1,000. Having had to qualify for most events since, he has slowly worked his way back up to No. 94 in the world.

The Slovakian's best performance this year was at Wimbledon, where he came through three qualifying rounds before beating the seeded Feliciano Lopez in a five-set thriller. He followed that by winning a hard-court challenger event in Pozoblanco, Spain.

Beck has played in the US Open only three times, but he did manage to reach the fourth round in 2004, and while that form doesn't hold much water now it at least shows that he has performed in the past at Flushing Meadows, which is something his opponent can't boast.

Gonzalez has played only six hard-court matches (including challenger events) in a career that began in 2002. In view of that Gonzalez would be difficult to recommend against almost any player in the draw and at 4-9 Beck is a strong fancy.

World No. 2 Andy Murray gets his campaign under way against Latvian Ernests Gulbis and the man from Dunblane is considered a certainty by the bookmakers.

Gulbis should not be taken lightly, though, as he would be a danger to Murray if he were to show his best form, but Gulbis seems to have developed his own ideas about the game and until he shows some improvement in his form he's best avoided for betting purposes.

Another player whose mind is rarely on court these days is former champion Marat Safin. The soon-to-retire Russian plays Austrian Jurgen Melzer and at 5-4 Safin is almost worth the risk, however punters would be better advised to watch the first few games to see if he appears fully focused.

Recommendations C Guccione 4pts 4-7 Betfred, Hills, Power K Beck 3pts 4-9 Betfred

CAPTION(S):

First test: Andy Murray