Challenger Tennis Preview - Sam Querrey worth favourite?

Almost $15k is the prize for the winner of the YP Challenger of Dallas, the week's highest profile Challenger tournament. Four top 100 players have made the trip to Texas' third largest city, and with 11 Challenger titles and 8 ATP Tour titles between them, it is no surprise that they rank highly in the Challenger tennis betting.

Despite only being the third seed, Sam Querrey is the undoubted favourite for this title (Sam Querrey 6/4 to win Challenger of Dallas). Barely twelve months ago, he reached a career high ranking of 17, before a series of injuries derailed his season. With six ATP titles, beating the likes of Mardy Fish, John Isner and Andy Murray in those finals, if he can find his form, he is a class above the rest of the field.

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However, second seed Steve Darcis is likely to be his main challenger. Injury has hampered his early season with withdrawals against Almagro in Chennai and Serra in Melbourne, but he will be hoping for some better luck here in Dallas. With four Challenger titles under his belt, he will be eyeing a fifth, but will have to break the streak that has seen the last six editions of this tournament won by Americans (Steve Darcis 8/1 to win Challenger of Dallas).

Two of those six American titles were won by Ryan Sweeting in 2009 and 2010. He missed the 2011 edition through injury, but is back as the top seed to retain his title this year (Ryan Sweeting 14/1 to win Challenger of Dallas). Another player who suffered the heartbreak of a fifth set defeat in Australia, he will be looking for the perfect tonic on his return to his former happy hunting grounds.

Heading Down Under...

Meanwhile, a number of players have remained Down Under to play in Caloundra. Top seed and world number 65, Yen-Hsun Lu, is the big favourite for this title as the Challenger veteran looks for his 16th title at this level (Yen-Hsun Lu 4/6 to win Caloundra International Challenger). Given the second seed, Marinko Matosevic, is ranked 135 places below Lu, it is easy to see why Lu is the strong favourite.

However, the local challenge comes from the talented young pair of Benjamin Mitchell and James Duckworth. Although neither of them has won any Challenger titles in the past, they have both shown good form in the early season thus far. James Duckworth has taken a set off Janko Tipsarevic and remained competitive in tight defeats to Gilles Simon and Jarkko Nieminen, and will be eyeing up a good run here (James Duckworth 12/1 to win Caloundra International Challenger). Benjamin Mitchell enjoyed a good run to the quarter-final last week in Burnie and will be looking to go better this week in his native Queensland (Benjamin Mitchell 10/1 to win Caloundra International Challenger).

The final tournament comes from Quimper, where a strong field of Frenchmen will be looking to win the title, including defending champion, David Guez. However, most eyes will be on former world number 12, Paul-Henri Mathieu, who continues his return from a twelve month layoff through injury (Paul-Henri Mathieu 5/1 to win BNP Paribas Challenger). One of the most gifted French players of his generation, if he is fit, he is a class above the field here.

The main non-French threat comes from the German pair of Daniel Brands and Bjorn Phau. Phau already has one Challenger title to his name in 2012, having won in Heilbronn, and will be looking to add a second here (Bjorn Phau 15/2 to win BNP Paribas Challenger). Brands finally got his 2012 season up-and-running at the fifth attempt with a first round win over Jonathan Dasnieres de Veigy, and will be looking to improve as the tournament progresses (Daniel Brands 6/1 to win BNP Paribas Challenger).

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