Rising star Thomaz Bellucci looks to be a good bet in a busy week on the ATP World Tour. The Brazilian is the defending champion in the picturesque Alpine resort of Gstaad and with his game in good nick, Bellucci has to have a solid chance to keeping his grip on the Swiss Open trophy.

This is the venue of Bellucci's first tour triumph and he did so as a qualifier, so the claycourts are sure to bring back good memories for him.

But of more importance in our bet is the 22-year-old's fine form.

Good results on the clay in recent weeks have taken Bellucci up to a career-high ranking of 22 - one which is set to rise further when the new list is published on Monday.

He made the last 16 at the French Open where he, like everyone else, lost to Rafael Nadal.

Two wins at Wimbledon kep the ball rolling before his return to the clay in Hamburg last week brought a quarter-final appearance and a narrow defeat (7-5 in the third) to Andreas Seppi.

Seeded third here, Bellucci has former champion Victor Hanescu and two-time runner-up Igor Andreev in his quarter but neither of those players has been showing much of late and his biggest test in the bottom half of the draw is likely to come from Swedish Open winner Nicolas Almago in the last four.

Their only previous meeting was won by Almagro but only in a final-set tie-break so we're happy to side with Bellucci, who is 7.00 with Bet365, although you may well get higher odds as other firms price up.

There's also a decent claycourt field assembled in Umag for the Croatia Open but here it's a couple of decent-priced outsiders we like the look of.

Top seed Nikolay Davydenko hasn't been in the greatest form - he's suffered early exits in both Stuttgart and Hamburg over the past fortnight - while on the other side of the draw Jurgen Melzer had a busy week in Hamburg where he reached the final, so could be feeling the effects here.

Instead we suggest you turn to Italians Andreas Seppi and Fabio Fognini.

Seppi's game is blossoming right now. He made the semis in Hamburg and the quarters the week before in Bastad where it took French Open runner-up Robin Soderling to stop him - and that only in a final-set tie-break.

A semi-finalist at this event 12 months ago, Seppi looks too big at 17.00 at Bet365even though he is in an admittedly tough section of the draw.

His compatriot Fognini has, by contrast, landed in the easier top half and should fancy his chances having had some decent recent results.

Many will remember seeing him in action in the near darkness at the French Open where he took out leading home hope Gael Monfils en route to round three.

More recently he's won a few rounds in both Bastad and Hamburg and shouldn't be phased by the seeds in his quarter, namely Ivan Ljubicic and Sergiy Stakhovsky.

Davydenko would appear to be the main danger in the top half but as we've already said we're far from convinced about him at present - the Russian has certainly yet to get back to top form following wrist surgery.

At 34.00 at Bet365, Fognini has to be worth a punt given his draw.

This week's other ATP tournament takes place on the other side of the Atlantic as preparations continue for next month's US Open.

Los Angeles is the venue for the latest 'US Open Series' hardcourt event and it sees Andy Murray return to action for the first time since Wimbledon.

In what's a pretty weak field - the second seed is 20th-ranked Sam Querrey - Murray should frankly win this event pretty comfortably.

He rediscovered his form at Wimbledon where he made the semi-finals and was only beaten by a very good display by eventual champion Nadal.

Certainly we can see why the big-hitters would want to get involved with the British number one this week. However, at a best price of 2.00 at Bet365, we're reluctant to dip our toe in the water given Murray's rather up-and-down year.

Mardy Fish, at time of writing due to take part in the final in Atlanta, is lurking in Murray's section while the aforementioned Querrey is a handful for anyone on his day with his big serve.

If you want a bet, Murray is probably your man but this week we'll leave the hardcourt action alone and focus on the European clay.