As is often the case when Federer plays an early round match, it's tough to find a good betting angle.

Roger Federer, had a bye through the opening round of the ATP Indian Wells event, the BNP Paribas Open, but in the second round he will need to best Victor Hanescu, something that should not be too difficult.

Federer and Hanescu have a limited history against one another as they have only played each other 4 times over the years.  The matches have all been won by Federer and each set of each match has also been won by the Swiss Maestro, usually in a very convincing manner as only two tiebreakers have been played in the 11 sets they have played against one another.

Their most recent match was at the 2010 Australian Open in the second round and the line score was 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 in Federer's favor.

This match against Hanescu will be Federer's first tournament since defeating Andy Murray in the final of the 2010 Aussie and you should fully expect Federer to pound Hanescu here in straight sets.

Unforunately there isn't much you can do with this match in terms of straight up betting.  Federer is priced at -6600 (1/66) with bet365, odds that you can't touch while Hanescu is priced at +1200 (12/1), odds that are also too short.

In terms of set betting, here are the options with bet365:

Federer wins 2-0, -1000 (1/10)
Federer wins 2-1, +600 (6/1)
Hanescu wins 2-1, +2500 (25/1)
Hanescu wins 2-0, +2000 (20/1)

Since the Australian Open, Hanescu has been messing around on the clay courts in Latin America and he has dropped a couple matches to guys ranked outside of the top 100.  He took a tiebreaker off of Fernando Gonzalez in the second round of Acapulco before losing that match in three sets. 

If there is a valuable betting angle on this match then it might be to hope that Federer's serve or touch abandons him in the early going of the match as he has gone a number of weeks now without playing an event.  Maybe Hanescu can capitalize and extend this match to three sets.

You're probably better off sprinkling Federer to win 2-1 at 6/1 (+600) than you are pounding him to win in straight sets at 1/10 (-1000).

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