Alize Cornet vs Michelle Larcher de Brito

Young upstart Michelle Larcher de Brito has made more headlines with her screaming on the court than she has done with her performances. This Portuguese sparkplug was brought up under the auspices and special care of Nick Bollettieri, former trainer of tennis legends like Andre Agassi and Jim Courier. However, his latest upstart has created more of a buzz for her negative actions and feisty attitude than she has with her level of play. After a 2009 campaign which saw de Brito show numerous flashes of brilliance with her spot on returning ability and fighting attitude, her 2010 campaign has left her supporters scrambling for answers.

If there are any positives to be taken from her recent total loss of form, they would be that she is young, and that her ranking hasn't dipped from its apex at the end of 2009. The concern is that her performances have been at the worst, uncompetitive, and at their best only mediocre. De Brito's coaches have opted to drop down the level of her competition to ITF tournaments, a ploy often used to increase player confidence when they cannot seem to get any wins at the WTA or ATP levels. Unfortunately, the change in tactics has not made a difference. While clay is admittedly not her favorite surface, de Brito has shown symptoms of mental anxiety issues, the likes of which have stopped players just as talented as de Brito right in their tracks. Her inability to hold serve, coupled with an inordinate amount of double faults and unforced errors have left many holes for opponents to prey on her weaknesses.

Her task this week in Estoril will not prove any less difficult. She will face a young Frenchwoman who did her own job to perform at levels that did not meet up to her expectations as well. She too suffered a horrific start to 2010, with a string of losses to lesser opponents. However, the recent change to her favorite surface of clay has brought back a winning mentality. Now, Alize Cornet realizes the task before her requires her to jump almost 50 places to regain the ranking that she had less than a year ago. In Fes, Morocco last week, Cornet saw off stiff competition from both Petra Martic and the Spaniard Parra Santonja, eventually being stopped by seventh-seeded Iveta Benesova. All these wins were against players in the top 100.

The question that bettors should ask themselves is, how do they think de Brito will perform in her home country of Portugal, where there will be increased pressure for her to win? We say that there is no reason to believe that her current loss of form and recent performances are any indication to believe that she can simply turn herself into a winner overnight. She did not even gain qualifying entrance into this tournament based on her play here, but rather accepted a wildcard entry into the tournament.

We at betsfreebets.com say, while it may prove more competitive than anticipated due to home crowd support, lay a free bet on Alize Cornet to finish off her Portuguese opponent with a moneyline win.

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