Don't do this at the view level. Just set the default value to the property in your view model's constructor. Clean and simple. In your post-backs, your selected value will automatically populate the correct selection.
For example
public class MyViewModel
{
public MyViewModel()
{
Gender = "Male";
}
}
<table>_x000D_
<tr>_x000D_
<td><label>@Html.RadioButtonFor(i => i.Gender, "Male")Male</label></td>_x000D_
<td><label>@Html.RadioButtonFor(i => i.Gender, "Female")Female</label></td>_x000D_
</tr>_x000D_
</table>
_x000D_