Nikolay Davydenko and Fernando Verdasco lead a quality field in Kuala Lumpur.

Mikhail Youzhny threw the biggest upset of the first round, defeating David Ferrer in straight sets and on Wednesday he faces Marcos Baghdatis who earned his first ATP win since July against Yen Lu. However this is not really indicative of Baghdatis’ current form.  The Cypriot has won his last seven matches, with a challenger title and two Davis Cup wins.  The pair have two wins apiece on their head to head but Baghdatis has won both their indoor matches on a fast surface in Marseille. However Youzhny did beat him in straights at Queens in June.

After his first round win Youzhny looks like a good pick and is 4/6 with sporting bet. Baghdatis is priced at 16/11 with expekt.com.

After a first round bye, second seed Fernando Verdasco enters the fray against Karol Beck. Betfred are pricing Verdasco at 4/1 to win the title and with the Spaniard’s recent form taking him to nine in the world he’s worth a try. Verdasco won New Haven and reached the US Open quarters while Beck has been struggling to win main draw matches at this level.

As a result you can’t really look past Verdasco to win this one at 1/8 with bet365.

Richard Gasquet had a successful week in Metz making the semis last week and he plays his first round against Romania’s Victor Crivoi tomorrow. Gasquet has beaten Crivoi twice before albeit on clay but it looks unlikely that Crivoi can gain a first win over the Frenchman, he comes into this tournament on a five match losing streak.

Gasquet is 1/8 to make the second round with Boylesports.