Defending champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga faces a tough test.

Tsonga is up against the mercurial Latvian Ernests Gulbis. Despite his lowly ranking and poor recent form, Gulbis is definitely not the sort of player you want to face in the early rounds. A hugely talented player and powerful striker of the ball, Gulbis is far better than his ranking of 99 suggests. He looked set for the top twenty but has had a dire year so far and his temperament and desire have come into question. He enjoyed a rare 7-6, 6-2 win in round one against Indian wildcard Somdev Devvarman. Tsonga is up to seven in the world and top seed in Bangkok, so received a first round bye. He has played Gulbis once before, winning 6-3, 6-2 in Adelaide last year.

Tsonga is a comfortable favourite at 2/9 with Ladbrokes while Gulbis is rated at 4/1 with sporting bet.

Marat Safin is making his final appearance in Bangkok and the big Russian doesn’t intend to go quietly. He showed his class in round one, beating fifth seed Philipp Petzschner 6-2, 3-6, 6-1. Now he faces Swiss qualifier Marco Chiudinelli who beat another qualifier 6-3, 6-3 earlier this week. Chiudinelli could be quite tricky, he has won a lot of matches recently. He qualified for the US Open and beat Mikhail Youzhny on the way to round three and also won three qualifying matches here in Bangkok over the weekend.

Safin is rated a marginal favourite at 4/6 with Ladbrokes but he has struggled to string wins together all year and Chiudinelli’s recent form makes him a decent punt. He’s 6/4 with Victor Chandler.

John Isner was briefly the new American hero at the US Open after stunning Andy Roddick on the way to the fourth round.  Fernando Verdasco ended his run in the last sixteen but Isner has established himself as a very dangerous dark horse in the major tournaments. He’s seeded eighth in Bangkok but came very close to going out in round one against a local wildcard, eventually winning 6-3, 3-6, 7-6. Isner plays another serve-volleyer, German Mischa Zverev on Thursday. Zverev was on an eight match losing streak going back to July before this tournament and although he ended that with a three set win earlier this week, it will be a surprise if Isner doesn’t reach the quarters.

Isner is 3/5 with expekt.com while Zverev is 13/8 with sporting bet.