As another season draws to a close, it's time to look at how I've fared recently on outright tournament betting, as I won't be getting involved in the annual lottery of the Shanghai jamboree.
Wimbledon Ladies - backed Venus Williams at 20, 50 & 55 - result - win
Bastad - backed Almagro at 9 & Verdasco - result - Almagro runner up
Newport - backed Nicolas Mahut at 5.0 - result - runner up
Gstaad - backed Mathieu at 15, Andreev & Youzhny - result - Mathieu win
Stuttgart - backed Nadal at 4, Acasuso at 64 & Monaco at 54 - result - Nadal win
Countrywide Classic - backed Tursunov at 9 & Stepanek at 50 - result - Stepanek win
Kitzbuhel - backed Starace at 25, Eschauer at 50 & Patience at 100 - result Starace runner up
Indianapolis - backed Ginepri at 40 - result - loss
Umag - backed Djokovic at 2 - result - loss
Washington - backed Haas at 6.5 - result - loss
Sopot - backed Andreev & Acasuso - result - Acasuso runner up
Montreal - backed Gasquet at 50 & Baghdatis/Canas/Haas/Murray at 100 - result loss
Montreal - backed Djokovic at 14 - result - win
Cincinnati - backed Mathieu at 150 & Blake at 70 - result - Blake runner up
New Haven - backed Hrbaty at 70 & Karlovic at 22 - result - loss
US Open Mens - backed Djokovic at 36 - result - runner up
US Open Ladies - backed Kuznetsova at 50 - result - runner up
Madrid - backed Federer at 1.63 (layed at 1.17) - result - runner up
Zurich Ladies - backed Henin at 2 - result - win
Basel - backed Federer at 1.5 - result - win
St Petersburg - backed Murray at 5, Ancic at 7 & Verdasco at 14 - result Murray win, Verdasco runner up
Lyon - backed Gicquel at 30 - result - runner up
Paris - backed Davydenko at 50 - result - loss
So, the result of these stats tells me that if I had put £10 each-way on each selection at the initial odds, the total outcome would have been a profit of £2320.
Of course, a lot of the odds were taken on Betfair, therefore the each-way option may have been slightly lower, however a simple lay off once the player reaches the final amounts to more or less the same thing in any case. Overall then, not a bad few months on the outright wagers!
Time for a well-earned break and I shall return refreshed and invigorated for Adelaide in January.
Thursday, 1 November 2007
Monday, 29 October 2007
Basel, Lyon & St Petersburg wrap and Paris advice
A very pleasing week comes to an end, with profits galore at all three ATP tournaments and a bank balance that is returning to it's heady pre-US Open heights, just as the season winds down.
In Basel, Roger Federer retained his Swiss Open title at the tournament where he was a ball boy in his youth. A bloodless straight sets victory over Jarkko Nieminen in the final represented Fed's eighth consecutive victory over the Finn (16 sets in a row) and a return on my 10 point wager at 1.5 with Boylesports.
Over in St Petersburg it was an eventful week to say the least. Andy Murray lifted the sizable trophy after coming from matchpoint down against Youzhny in the semi's to record a finals day win over Fernando Verdasco in straight sets.
The final was perfect for me, having advised and backed both players pre-tournament and a very nice profit of 15 points was the outcome.
The St Petersburg event was a controversial one however, with some extremely questionable matches taking place - notably Tursunov v Pashanski, where Tursunov was being backed to the hilt at 1.2 despite being a set and a break down! The result? Why, a Tursunov comeback victory of course...'They' knew.
Barely a week goes by these days without Nikolay Davydenko making headlines, this time it was for receiving a code violation and a fine for 'not giving best effort' in his match against Marin Cilic. Having written about this elsewhere http://tennisgurunews.blogspot.com/2007/10/davydenko-in-spotlight-again.html, I'll move on swiftly to the Lyon tournament.
My man in Lyon, Marc Gicquel, made it to the final at the nice price of 30 and with each seeded player falling early, the final against Seb Grosjean allowed an easy lay opportunity, which I took for an all-profit outcome. My initial investment of 1.5 points showed a profit of 10 points and the week in total showed a green of 30 points.
On to this week and the final Masters Series event of the year in Paris sees a rather lopsided draw and an opportunity for the much maligned (and rightly so) Davydenko to answer his many critics on the tennis court.
The Russian defending champ, has by far the easiest draw and I snapped up the 51 on offer from Sporting Odds on Saturday. The price is now down as low as 13 with some high street layers and I wouldn't touch that, but 50 is about right for a 1.5 point wager on a player whose mental state can only be estimated, along with his ethics.
I'm going with the theory that Davydenko will look to produce a good show as defending champ and the draw couldn't be kinder, given the fact that Federer has Karlovic, Nalbandian, Berdych, Murray, Djokovic, Gasquet and Blake in his section and will be tired after his two long weeks. Davy by comparison has only the likes of Ljubicic, Canas and Robredo in his quarter and only a clearly jaded Nadal of any note in his half, given the poor recent form of Haas and Gonzalez, so if (and it's a big if) the Russian can be bothered this week, he has an outstanding chance.
In Basel, Roger Federer retained his Swiss Open title at the tournament where he was a ball boy in his youth. A bloodless straight sets victory over Jarkko Nieminen in the final represented Fed's eighth consecutive victory over the Finn (16 sets in a row) and a return on my 10 point wager at 1.5 with Boylesports.
Over in St Petersburg it was an eventful week to say the least. Andy Murray lifted the sizable trophy after coming from matchpoint down against Youzhny in the semi's to record a finals day win over Fernando Verdasco in straight sets.
The final was perfect for me, having advised and backed both players pre-tournament and a very nice profit of 15 points was the outcome.
The St Petersburg event was a controversial one however, with some extremely questionable matches taking place - notably Tursunov v Pashanski, where Tursunov was being backed to the hilt at 1.2 despite being a set and a break down! The result? Why, a Tursunov comeback victory of course...'They' knew.
Barely a week goes by these days without Nikolay Davydenko making headlines, this time it was for receiving a code violation and a fine for 'not giving best effort' in his match against Marin Cilic. Having written about this elsewhere http://tennisgurunews.blogspot.com/2007/10/davydenko-in-spotlight-again.html, I'll move on swiftly to the Lyon tournament.
My man in Lyon, Marc Gicquel, made it to the final at the nice price of 30 and with each seeded player falling early, the final against Seb Grosjean allowed an easy lay opportunity, which I took for an all-profit outcome. My initial investment of 1.5 points showed a profit of 10 points and the week in total showed a green of 30 points.
On to this week and the final Masters Series event of the year in Paris sees a rather lopsided draw and an opportunity for the much maligned (and rightly so) Davydenko to answer his many critics on the tennis court.
The Russian defending champ, has by far the easiest draw and I snapped up the 51 on offer from Sporting Odds on Saturday. The price is now down as low as 13 with some high street layers and I wouldn't touch that, but 50 is about right for a 1.5 point wager on a player whose mental state can only be estimated, along with his ethics.
I'm going with the theory that Davydenko will look to produce a good show as defending champ and the draw couldn't be kinder, given the fact that Federer has Karlovic, Nalbandian, Berdych, Murray, Djokovic, Gasquet and Blake in his section and will be tired after his two long weeks. Davy by comparison has only the likes of Ljubicic, Canas and Robredo in his quarter and only a clearly jaded Nadal of any note in his half, given the poor recent form of Haas and Gonzalez, so if (and it's a big if) the Russian can be bothered this week, he has an outstanding chance.
Wednesday, 24 October 2007
Basel, St Petersburg & Lyon advice
The end of the tennis season always brings up a few unlikely results, but I managed to escape with a very healthy profit from Zurich and Madrid last week, largely thanks to Justine Henin and there are a few opportunities this week in which to reinvest those winnings.
The first wager that stands out for value seekers on Betfair is Fernando Verdasco outright in St Petersburg.
The top of the draw looks very weak in comparison to the bottom half, with only a potentially injured and as yet unnappeared Nikolay Davydenko to worry about and 14 looks a generous lay, particularly considering the high street layers are only offering 9.
Verdasco almost took out Djokovic last week in Madrid and has that huge lefty forehand in prime condition just now, so it's worth chancing that Davydenko won't make it to the semi's and taking that 14 on offer about the Spaniard.
The tougher bottom half appears to hold great opportunities for two players coming back from injury, in Murray and Ancic and I've had my share of the Scot at 5 and the Croat at 7. These two should contest the semi in the form they are in and both won in straight sets yesterday.
Over in Basel, I've had an investment in Federer at 1.5, with a small back up on Paul-Henri Mathieu at 34 in the easier bottom half of the draw. It seems unlikely that Federer will lose twice in a fortnight and in his home town, where he is defending champ, so a back to lay seemed like a sensible bet.
In Lyon, local specialist Marc Gicquel has an outstanding chance in the only tournament where he play well and his first round straight sets win over Robredo was no surprise. The bottom half looks weak and at 30 a wager on Gicquel looks the call.
Of the first round matches, I would pay good money to watch Santoro play Roddick and don't be surprised if The Magician has a trick or two still left up his sleeve for A-Rod.
The first wager that stands out for value seekers on Betfair is Fernando Verdasco outright in St Petersburg.
The top of the draw looks very weak in comparison to the bottom half, with only a potentially injured and as yet unnappeared Nikolay Davydenko to worry about and 14 looks a generous lay, particularly considering the high street layers are only offering 9.
Verdasco almost took out Djokovic last week in Madrid and has that huge lefty forehand in prime condition just now, so it's worth chancing that Davydenko won't make it to the semi's and taking that 14 on offer about the Spaniard.
The tougher bottom half appears to hold great opportunities for two players coming back from injury, in Murray and Ancic and I've had my share of the Scot at 5 and the Croat at 7. These two should contest the semi in the form they are in and both won in straight sets yesterday.
Over in Basel, I've had an investment in Federer at 1.5, with a small back up on Paul-Henri Mathieu at 34 in the easier bottom half of the draw. It seems unlikely that Federer will lose twice in a fortnight and in his home town, where he is defending champ, so a back to lay seemed like a sensible bet.
In Lyon, local specialist Marc Gicquel has an outstanding chance in the only tournament where he play well and his first round straight sets win over Robredo was no surprise. The bottom half looks weak and at 30 a wager on Gicquel looks the call.
Of the first round matches, I would pay good money to watch Santoro play Roddick and don't be surprised if The Magician has a trick or two still left up his sleeve for A-Rod.
Thursday, 18 October 2007
ATP Masters Madrid - The story so far
The temperature in the race for the final available berths for the end of season jolly in Shanghai was raised a couple of notches in Madrid this week and that combined with competing at altitude in Europe's highest capital led to a flurry of early casualties.
With half of the places already allocated and another two appearing reserved for Roddick and Ferrer, the remaining positions could conceivably be taken by anyone currently in the top twenty, bar the injured Lleyton Hewitt, so close are the players in the rankings.
The top 16 seeded competitors all received byes into the second round and many will now wish they hadn't, as 10 of them went out in the second round and another, Nikolay Davydenko, retired through injury.
All of which leaves the week's most impressive performer thus far, Andy Murray, in with an outside chance of reaching Shanghai and a great chance of revenge over Rafael Nadal tonight in what promises to be a classic encounter.
With so many of his rivals faltering, if Murray does overcome Nadal et al it is conceivable that he would move into the top 10 with two tournaments left in which to accrue ranking points. The manner of his two victories this week suggests that after a difficult rehabilitation from a wrist injury, he is now at peak fitness and crucially the forehand is back in business, as Stepanek and Chela will testify.
Sky's commentator-less interactive coverage combined with a distinct lack of spectators on Court Alcala this week has meant that every exchange between players and officials could be heard in full and there have been a few feisty incidents of note this week.
First to lose the plot was (not for the first time) Jurgen Melzer in his first round match with Ginepri. After cruising the first set against a slow starting Ginepri, Melzer was on the receiving end of some questionable calls and went into meltdown in the second set breaker after a poor overrule from the umpire gave Ginepri an unassailable advantage.
Melzer's racquet bore the brunt and bizarrely he tried to fix it whilst Ginepri was waiting to serve and the Austrian received a code violation for time wasting, at which point I genuinely believed that Melzer was about to burst into tears. Instead, he lost the set and went for a lengthy comfort break before losing the match in a third set which saw almost constant muttering and complaining from one of a band of temperamental Austrian players. Compatriot, Stafan Koubek was thrown out of a tournament recently for similar antics.
American, Mardy Fish, was next to have Sky reaching for the mute button, as he threatened to "kick his (Paul-Henri Mathieu's) fu***ng ass" in an unusual altercation during the second set of their first round encounter.
After winning the first set, the Frenchman was a couple of breaks down in the second set when he took what Fish perceived to be a tactical injury timeout and the players came together, alongside the umpire at the net after Mathieu had disputed a line call.
Fish's expletive ridden tirade was mainly to the umpire, who tried unsuccessfully to defend Mathieu's sportmanship and the Frenchman wisely retreated to the baseline to lose the set, but take the match in the decider.
On the betting front, successful wagers on Murray (twice), Ancic, Nalbandian and Del Potro led to a handy profit, which was somewhat dented by Gasquet's loss to Mathieu yesterday.
I'm going to have an interest in Murray, Ancic and possibly Nalbandian today and my main investments this week, rather unoriginally on Federer and Henin, play their respective matches today also.
With half of the places already allocated and another two appearing reserved for Roddick and Ferrer, the remaining positions could conceivably be taken by anyone currently in the top twenty, bar the injured Lleyton Hewitt, so close are the players in the rankings.
The top 16 seeded competitors all received byes into the second round and many will now wish they hadn't, as 10 of them went out in the second round and another, Nikolay Davydenko, retired through injury.
All of which leaves the week's most impressive performer thus far, Andy Murray, in with an outside chance of reaching Shanghai and a great chance of revenge over Rafael Nadal tonight in what promises to be a classic encounter.
With so many of his rivals faltering, if Murray does overcome Nadal et al it is conceivable that he would move into the top 10 with two tournaments left in which to accrue ranking points. The manner of his two victories this week suggests that after a difficult rehabilitation from a wrist injury, he is now at peak fitness and crucially the forehand is back in business, as Stepanek and Chela will testify.
Sky's commentator-less interactive coverage combined with a distinct lack of spectators on Court Alcala this week has meant that every exchange between players and officials could be heard in full and there have been a few feisty incidents of note this week.
First to lose the plot was (not for the first time) Jurgen Melzer in his first round match with Ginepri. After cruising the first set against a slow starting Ginepri, Melzer was on the receiving end of some questionable calls and went into meltdown in the second set breaker after a poor overrule from the umpire gave Ginepri an unassailable advantage.
Melzer's racquet bore the brunt and bizarrely he tried to fix it whilst Ginepri was waiting to serve and the Austrian received a code violation for time wasting, at which point I genuinely believed that Melzer was about to burst into tears. Instead, he lost the set and went for a lengthy comfort break before losing the match in a third set which saw almost constant muttering and complaining from one of a band of temperamental Austrian players. Compatriot, Stafan Koubek was thrown out of a tournament recently for similar antics.
American, Mardy Fish, was next to have Sky reaching for the mute button, as he threatened to "kick his (Paul-Henri Mathieu's) fu***ng ass" in an unusual altercation during the second set of their first round encounter.
After winning the first set, the Frenchman was a couple of breaks down in the second set when he took what Fish perceived to be a tactical injury timeout and the players came together, alongside the umpire at the net after Mathieu had disputed a line call.
Fish's expletive ridden tirade was mainly to the umpire, who tried unsuccessfully to defend Mathieu's sportmanship and the Frenchman wisely retreated to the baseline to lose the set, but take the match in the decider.
On the betting front, successful wagers on Murray (twice), Ancic, Nalbandian and Del Potro led to a handy profit, which was somewhat dented by Gasquet's loss to Mathieu yesterday.
I'm going to have an interest in Murray, Ancic and possibly Nalbandian today and my main investments this week, rather unoriginally on Federer and Henin, play their respective matches today also.
Monday, 17 September 2007
China, Romania and Bali
It was very much a case of 'after the Lord Mayor's show' for the tennis world last week, following two weeks of cracking entertainment in New York, with only the hardcore making the long journeys to three minor tournaments in the hope of ranking points and in some cases a return to form.
The clay event in Bucharest always sees an entirely random winner - last year it was Jurgen Melzer - and this year was no different, with the finalists being Gilles Simon and home favourite, Victor Hanescu.
Punters would have been hard pressed to come up with those two as a final pair and individual match traders would have been none too pleased with the amount of retirements in the tournament in the middle of games, but this always happens the week after a slam, so I kept what was left of my funds firmly in my pocket.
The same applied to the China Open on hard, but I thought that the ubiquitous Nikolay Davydenko was too big at 5.0, so had a five point wager on him for the event, which I layed off when he traded at a more sensible 3.45.
Of course, he lost in straight sets to Marin Cilic in the second round, but I was out of the bet by then having made a bit and I gave the rest of the event a swerve.
Fernando Gonzalez enjoyed a welcome return to form, beating Tommy Robredo in the final and will be looking to continue that progress between now and Shanghai.
Over in Bali, it was great to see Lindsay Davenport mark her comeback to the tour with a win and she clearly still has the ability and hunger to trouble the best, after victories over Jankovic and Hantuchova en route to the title.
No ATP Tour event this week, but a few WTA events begin, however I will be concentrating on the cricket and rugby this week for hopefully some profit opportunities.
The clay event in Bucharest always sees an entirely random winner - last year it was Jurgen Melzer - and this year was no different, with the finalists being Gilles Simon and home favourite, Victor Hanescu.
Punters would have been hard pressed to come up with those two as a final pair and individual match traders would have been none too pleased with the amount of retirements in the tournament in the middle of games, but this always happens the week after a slam, so I kept what was left of my funds firmly in my pocket.
The same applied to the China Open on hard, but I thought that the ubiquitous Nikolay Davydenko was too big at 5.0, so had a five point wager on him for the event, which I layed off when he traded at a more sensible 3.45.
Of course, he lost in straight sets to Marin Cilic in the second round, but I was out of the bet by then having made a bit and I gave the rest of the event a swerve.
Fernando Gonzalez enjoyed a welcome return to form, beating Tommy Robredo in the final and will be looking to continue that progress between now and Shanghai.
Over in Bali, it was great to see Lindsay Davenport mark her comeback to the tour with a win and she clearly still has the ability and hunger to trouble the best, after victories over Jankovic and Hantuchova en route to the title.
No ATP Tour event this week, but a few WTA events begin, however I will be concentrating on the cricket and rugby this week for hopefully some profit opportunities.
Monday, 10 September 2007
US Open Finals Weekend
Finals weekend at Flushing Meadows and the end of my stint as an insomniac, for the time being at least.
It was another hot, humid day in New York on Saturday and the protagonists of the first men’s semi final – Novak Djokovic and David Ferrer had to suffer the worst of the conditions.
Ever since his second round thriller with Stepanek, Djokovic has looked out on his feet during each match and today was no different, as he had the trainer and the doctor out frequently, but managed to see off the challenge of Ferrer in straight sets.
Retirement through fatigue appeared to be the Serb’s only real likelihood of defeat in this one, as he was just too good for the Spaniard, who doesn’t possess the weapons required to beat Djokovic over five sets on a hard court and so Novak proudly became his country’s first male Grand Slam finalist.
So, both of my pre-tournament wagers had made the final, but this will mean little in terms of profit unless they go close in their respective championship matches, due to the fact that they will both be massive underdogs.
I hoped, therefore, for a Davydenko victory in the second semi final, but it seemed unlikely, given all the evidence pointing to a Federer success.
During the pre-match chat, Greg Rusedski, who is becoming camper as the tournament progresses, stated “the public will warm to him” when discussing Nikolay Davydenko. Sorry Greg, but the public haven’t and never will warm to this dull little man, in a similar fashion to the way they haven’t warmed to your maniacal grin and bizarre fluctuating tones of voice.
The Russian broke the Federer serve in the first game of the match, but from 1-3, Federer took it up a couple of notches and served for the set at 5-3.
Davydenko fought back and with some great play, earned himself a couple of break points and took the second one to stay in the set.
A trademark forehand service return winner and a brilliant backhand pass did the trick for Davydenko and he followed it up with a love service game to level at 5-5, but he couldn’t fend off Fed for long and the Swiss maestro broke to take the set 7-5.
Fed took the next 6-1, but the third set was surprisingly competitive, with many breaks of serve and some thrilling baselines rallies and Davydenko had the first set point at 4-5 on Federer’s serve, having broken the Swiss three times in the set already.
Federer fired himself up though and somehow fought off the break point and a brilliant forehand running pass preceded a Davydenko double fault in the very next game and suddenly, Federer was serving for a place in the final.
He served it out to love to post a 7-5, 6-1, 7-5 success and so my wagers will both need to overcome the number one seeds, or at least run them close, if I am to record a profit on the tournament. Typical.
The less said about the ladies final the better. Henin walked it in straight sets, playing superb tennis and giving poor Sveta no chance whatsoever and giving me no chance whatsoever to profit on my wager.
Finals night began with the usual nonsense in the name of hype and ‘entertainment’. This year it was a wired looking Liza Minelli banging out God Bless America on court, accompanied by a suited pianist and a troupe of soldiers, unfurling the star spangled banner underneath an air force fly-by.
In the studio, Annabel Croft was looking her glamorous best and Rusedksi’s grin had reached a width of Julia Roberts proportions, as he recalled his own participation on the corresponding day a decade ago.
Back on court, Federer arrived in the all black gear and Djokovic patriotically decided upon the red, white and blue of Serbia.
For the second consecutive night I was holding a wager that looked highly unlikely to come in, and I desperately required Djokovic to start strongly and he was the first to find break points, at 5-5 in the opener.
Federer put a forehand long on the second break point and the New York crowd, who have really taken to the Serb and included Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman, went wild when Novak went 40-0 up and had three set points.
He couldn’t take advantage of them though and wasted five set points in total. Surely he would be made to pay for his profligacy in the resulting tie-break?
He would and you can’t expect to beat Roger Federer if you throw away golden opportunities such as the Serb did. Djokovic’s racquet hit the floor, as did my spirits when a double fault gave the set on a plate to the Swiss.
It was a similar story in the second set, as Djokovic had two set points at 6-5, but again he failed to convert and again it ended the same way as the first, in a tie break win for Federer.
Same again in the third, as Djokovic had three consecutive break points at 2-2, but failed again and both the Serb and myself were done.
Game over and the male and female world number one’s had delivered and it meant that I failed to make a bean from picking a 36-1 finalist and a 50-1 finalist, which seems a bit harsh.
So, it’s all over for another year and it just leaves the annual awards, which are as follows: -
Worst temperament award – Stanislas Wawrinka (runner-up Novak Djokovic)
Worst outfit – Bethanie Mattek’s tiger print shocker
Best outfit – Agnes Szavay’s little white dress
Best match – James Blake v Fabrice Santoro
Best commentary – Peter Fleming
Worst commentary – Sam Smith & ‘Rick’ from US TV (impossible to split them)
Most graceless loser – Serena Williams
Dullest personality award – Roger Federer, Nikolay Davydenko, Justine Henin
Scruffiest player – David Ferrer
The ‘my, haven’t you grown?’ award – Marcos Baghdatis & Bethanie Mattek
It was another hot, humid day in New York on Saturday and the protagonists of the first men’s semi final – Novak Djokovic and David Ferrer had to suffer the worst of the conditions.
Ever since his second round thriller with Stepanek, Djokovic has looked out on his feet during each match and today was no different, as he had the trainer and the doctor out frequently, but managed to see off the challenge of Ferrer in straight sets.
Retirement through fatigue appeared to be the Serb’s only real likelihood of defeat in this one, as he was just too good for the Spaniard, who doesn’t possess the weapons required to beat Djokovic over five sets on a hard court and so Novak proudly became his country’s first male Grand Slam finalist.
So, both of my pre-tournament wagers had made the final, but this will mean little in terms of profit unless they go close in their respective championship matches, due to the fact that they will both be massive underdogs.
I hoped, therefore, for a Davydenko victory in the second semi final, but it seemed unlikely, given all the evidence pointing to a Federer success.
During the pre-match chat, Greg Rusedski, who is becoming camper as the tournament progresses, stated “the public will warm to him” when discussing Nikolay Davydenko. Sorry Greg, but the public haven’t and never will warm to this dull little man, in a similar fashion to the way they haven’t warmed to your maniacal grin and bizarre fluctuating tones of voice.
The Russian broke the Federer serve in the first game of the match, but from 1-3, Federer took it up a couple of notches and served for the set at 5-3.
Davydenko fought back and with some great play, earned himself a couple of break points and took the second one to stay in the set.
A trademark forehand service return winner and a brilliant backhand pass did the trick for Davydenko and he followed it up with a love service game to level at 5-5, but he couldn’t fend off Fed for long and the Swiss maestro broke to take the set 7-5.
Fed took the next 6-1, but the third set was surprisingly competitive, with many breaks of serve and some thrilling baselines rallies and Davydenko had the first set point at 4-5 on Federer’s serve, having broken the Swiss three times in the set already.
Federer fired himself up though and somehow fought off the break point and a brilliant forehand running pass preceded a Davydenko double fault in the very next game and suddenly, Federer was serving for a place in the final.
He served it out to love to post a 7-5, 6-1, 7-5 success and so my wagers will both need to overcome the number one seeds, or at least run them close, if I am to record a profit on the tournament. Typical.
The less said about the ladies final the better. Henin walked it in straight sets, playing superb tennis and giving poor Sveta no chance whatsoever and giving me no chance whatsoever to profit on my wager.
Finals night began with the usual nonsense in the name of hype and ‘entertainment’. This year it was a wired looking Liza Minelli banging out God Bless America on court, accompanied by a suited pianist and a troupe of soldiers, unfurling the star spangled banner underneath an air force fly-by.
In the studio, Annabel Croft was looking her glamorous best and Rusedksi’s grin had reached a width of Julia Roberts proportions, as he recalled his own participation on the corresponding day a decade ago.
Back on court, Federer arrived in the all black gear and Djokovic patriotically decided upon the red, white and blue of Serbia.
For the second consecutive night I was holding a wager that looked highly unlikely to come in, and I desperately required Djokovic to start strongly and he was the first to find break points, at 5-5 in the opener.
Federer put a forehand long on the second break point and the New York crowd, who have really taken to the Serb and included Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman, went wild when Novak went 40-0 up and had three set points.
He couldn’t take advantage of them though and wasted five set points in total. Surely he would be made to pay for his profligacy in the resulting tie-break?
He would and you can’t expect to beat Roger Federer if you throw away golden opportunities such as the Serb did. Djokovic’s racquet hit the floor, as did my spirits when a double fault gave the set on a plate to the Swiss.
It was a similar story in the second set, as Djokovic had two set points at 6-5, but again he failed to convert and again it ended the same way as the first, in a tie break win for Federer.
Same again in the third, as Djokovic had three consecutive break points at 2-2, but failed again and both the Serb and myself were done.
Game over and the male and female world number one’s had delivered and it meant that I failed to make a bean from picking a 36-1 finalist and a 50-1 finalist, which seems a bit harsh.
So, it’s all over for another year and it just leaves the annual awards, which are as follows: -
Worst temperament award – Stanislas Wawrinka (runner-up Novak Djokovic)
Worst outfit – Bethanie Mattek’s tiger print shocker
Best outfit – Agnes Szavay’s little white dress
Best match – James Blake v Fabrice Santoro
Best commentary – Peter Fleming
Worst commentary – Sam Smith & ‘Rick’ from US TV (impossible to split them)
Most graceless loser – Serena Williams
Dullest personality award – Roger Federer, Nikolay Davydenko, Justine Henin
Scruffiest player – David Ferrer
The ‘my, haven’t you grown?’ award – Marcos Baghdatis & Bethanie Mattek
Saturday, 8 September 2007
US Open Day 12 - Sveta survives
Day 12 at the Billie Jean King Tennis Centre promised to be an exciting one, from the viewpoint of entertainment and of potential profit.
It was ladies semi-finals day and make or break for my pre-tournament bet on Svetlana Kuznetsova. She really had to make the finals in order for me to profit, but first up today was the men’s doubles finals and I thought I may as well get in the mood with a quiet wager to see how my fortunes were shaping up.
I know enough about doubles to have realised that 2.2 against Aspelin & Knowle was decent value for the title over the Czech pair, Dlouhy & Visner, and so I invested in the Swedish/Austrian partnership, who obliged in straight sets for a deserved victory and a good start to the day.
I was undecided over whether to lay some of my wager on Kuznetsova off to ensure a profit, prior to the match with Chakvetadze and in the end decided it would be best just to let it ride and see what transpired.
What transpired was an incredibly nervy start from both players on a very warm, but windy afternoon in Flushing and it almost turned into a nightmare for me and for Kuznetsova.
I was an absolutely dire opening set from the number four seed, littered with unforced errors and it looked like I’d done my chips. The Betfair site had gone down right at the end of the first set, so I couldn’t amend my position when I badly needed to, so I was marooned with a large green on Kuznetsova, who posted a shocking 21 unforced errors in that opening set, which went to Chakvetadze by 6-3.
Chakvetadze had done nothing to win the first set, other than to put the ball in the court and leave the rest to Sveta’s badly misfiring ground strokes, but Anna threw in two double faults of her own to go a break down in the second set and followed it up with another shocker to go double break down. Chakvetadze had temporarily lost the plot and another break meant that the set was Sveta’s by 6-1, due to the number six seed’s 17 unforced errors.
This match became even more bizarre when the match was suspended due to excessive heat on Arthur Ashe court and both players needed to reach for the Valium and sort themselves out, because this was terrible tennis.
I was fortunate enough to be courtside in Melbourne at the Australian Open in January this year, when play was suspended and I recall that it was in excess of 50 degrees that day on court in the Rod Laver Arena and it’s just not possible to play in that sort of heat. Perhaps that explains the dire quality of tennis.
The decider began with, surprise, surprise, a couple of breaks and this match was taking years off my life. I reached for a beer in an attempt to relax, before witnessing the twelfth break of serve in this haphazard encounter and Sveta was 3-1 up.
The Betfair site was suddenly back and fortunately for me I was in profit in time to watch Chokevetadze (sorry Anna, but it’s true) collapse from a set up with break points to lose 12 out of the next 13 games for a poor defeat.
It brings to mind the classic Barry Davies quote, slightly amended, “where is Anna Chakvetadze? (pause) And quite frankly, who cares”.
Back on an increasingly windy Ashe, Venus Williams brought out the old family bathroom break trick with a twist. This time, Venus went for one after the warm-up, which could easily be construed as gamesmanship. Amazing how these urgent toilet requirements can happen in a big match.
It didn’t help her, as Venus was broken in the opening game and went on to lose a great set of tennis in a breaker, after breaking back and forcing Henin to go the distance.
It was a wonderful set of tennis; both players playing at their best, with the Belgian just having the edge, which she took into the second, when she broke Williams early on.
Suddenly, from nowhere, Venus broke back and then had another three break points at 3-3, but she failed to take advantage and it appeared that the chance had gone.
Williams received a visit from the trainer during the interval and then it was Henin’s turn to have three break points. She took the last of them with a Williams unforced error and served for the match at 5-3.
Somehow, Williams broke back and this match was living up to my expectations – I hoped for a third and final set, but more unforced errors meant a 7-6, 6-4 victory for the Belgian and she now looks nailed on for the title on today’s performances.
It was ladies semi-finals day and make or break for my pre-tournament bet on Svetlana Kuznetsova. She really had to make the finals in order for me to profit, but first up today was the men’s doubles finals and I thought I may as well get in the mood with a quiet wager to see how my fortunes were shaping up.
I know enough about doubles to have realised that 2.2 against Aspelin & Knowle was decent value for the title over the Czech pair, Dlouhy & Visner, and so I invested in the Swedish/Austrian partnership, who obliged in straight sets for a deserved victory and a good start to the day.
I was undecided over whether to lay some of my wager on Kuznetsova off to ensure a profit, prior to the match with Chakvetadze and in the end decided it would be best just to let it ride and see what transpired.
What transpired was an incredibly nervy start from both players on a very warm, but windy afternoon in Flushing and it almost turned into a nightmare for me and for Kuznetsova.
I was an absolutely dire opening set from the number four seed, littered with unforced errors and it looked like I’d done my chips. The Betfair site had gone down right at the end of the first set, so I couldn’t amend my position when I badly needed to, so I was marooned with a large green on Kuznetsova, who posted a shocking 21 unforced errors in that opening set, which went to Chakvetadze by 6-3.
Chakvetadze had done nothing to win the first set, other than to put the ball in the court and leave the rest to Sveta’s badly misfiring ground strokes, but Anna threw in two double faults of her own to go a break down in the second set and followed it up with another shocker to go double break down. Chakvetadze had temporarily lost the plot and another break meant that the set was Sveta’s by 6-1, due to the number six seed’s 17 unforced errors.
This match became even more bizarre when the match was suspended due to excessive heat on Arthur Ashe court and both players needed to reach for the Valium and sort themselves out, because this was terrible tennis.
I was fortunate enough to be courtside in Melbourne at the Australian Open in January this year, when play was suspended and I recall that it was in excess of 50 degrees that day on court in the Rod Laver Arena and it’s just not possible to play in that sort of heat. Perhaps that explains the dire quality of tennis.
The decider began with, surprise, surprise, a couple of breaks and this match was taking years off my life. I reached for a beer in an attempt to relax, before witnessing the twelfth break of serve in this haphazard encounter and Sveta was 3-1 up.
The Betfair site was suddenly back and fortunately for me I was in profit in time to watch Chokevetadze (sorry Anna, but it’s true) collapse from a set up with break points to lose 12 out of the next 13 games for a poor defeat.
It brings to mind the classic Barry Davies quote, slightly amended, “where is Anna Chakvetadze? (pause) And quite frankly, who cares”.
Back on an increasingly windy Ashe, Venus Williams brought out the old family bathroom break trick with a twist. This time, Venus went for one after the warm-up, which could easily be construed as gamesmanship. Amazing how these urgent toilet requirements can happen in a big match.
It didn’t help her, as Venus was broken in the opening game and went on to lose a great set of tennis in a breaker, after breaking back and forcing Henin to go the distance.
It was a wonderful set of tennis; both players playing at their best, with the Belgian just having the edge, which she took into the second, when she broke Williams early on.
Suddenly, from nowhere, Venus broke back and then had another three break points at 3-3, but she failed to take advantage and it appeared that the chance had gone.
Williams received a visit from the trainer during the interval and then it was Henin’s turn to have three break points. She took the last of them with a Williams unforced error and served for the match at 5-3.
Somehow, Williams broke back and this match was living up to my expectations – I hoped for a third and final set, but more unforced errors meant a 7-6, 6-4 victory for the Belgian and she now looks nailed on for the title on today’s performances.
US Open Day 11 - Quarters complete
Day 11 of this year’s US Open saw the completion of the men’s quarter-finals and we now know the identities of the eight players that are still in contention for the final grand slam singles titles of 2007.
First on court today were David Ferrer and Juan Ignacio Chela and the question to be answered here was could Ferrer overcome his fatigue, after some tough matches and beat Chela for the first time in his career?
The answer was an emphatic yes to both – Ferrer came through in straight sets in a very one sided encounter and now faces the winner of Thursday’s match under the lights, which was Djokovic v Moya, for a place in the final.
Carlos Moya has had a bit of a resurgence this year, but the quarter’s of a slam is really as far as he can expect can go and Djokovic ended his run in another low key affair 7-6, 7-6, 6-1. A tight second set breaker was the highlight of another encounter that won’t live too long in the memory banks. Tonight should be different though.
All eight favourites came through their respective quarter-finals and the only one that dropped a set was Venus Williams (to Jankovic), but hopefully the weekend’s semi-finals and finals will prove a little more competitive.
Looking ahead to today’s matches, I’m obviously firmly in the Kuznetsova camp in the first ladies semi, but the match of the weekend could well prove to be Venus Williams v Justine Henin and this really deserves to be for the title. Will the Venus power game get the better of Henin again? The American holds a 7-1 advantage over Henin, but they haven’t faced one another since 2003 and Henin has improved considerably since then, so this is a tough match to call. Obviously, I hope it will go the distance, with the winner being too tired to raise their game for the final for the sake of my bet, but whatever the outcome, it will be an unmissable match.
The men’s final four is again dominated by Federer and there are really only a couple of questions to be answered here. Firstly, can Davydenko grind out his first win over the Swiss maestro in ten attempts and secondly, can Djokovic fight the fatigue and continue his run?
The Russian has not dropped a set so far in the tournament and ran Fed close at Roland Garros earlier this year, so you would have to say that he is getting nearer to that elusive first victory over the world number one, but can he go the extra mile and create a shock? The way Federer is playing, it seems a forlorn hope.
Djokovic v Ferrer will be a tight match I feel, given the amount of court time that the young Serb has put in this week and it might be a step too far for him. If he has enough left in the tank though he should beat the Valencian, who has admitted that hard is not his favourite surface and would most likely be soundly beaten by Federer or Davydenko if either turned out to be the championship match.
So, no real surprises at all in the semi final protagonists, with the possible exception of Ferrer, but perhaps there’s a shock or two still to occur in these championships and with no night match this evening, I might be able to give myself a break from sleep deprivation and enjoy the possibilities.
First on court today were David Ferrer and Juan Ignacio Chela and the question to be answered here was could Ferrer overcome his fatigue, after some tough matches and beat Chela for the first time in his career?
The answer was an emphatic yes to both – Ferrer came through in straight sets in a very one sided encounter and now faces the winner of Thursday’s match under the lights, which was Djokovic v Moya, for a place in the final.
Carlos Moya has had a bit of a resurgence this year, but the quarter’s of a slam is really as far as he can expect can go and Djokovic ended his run in another low key affair 7-6, 7-6, 6-1. A tight second set breaker was the highlight of another encounter that won’t live too long in the memory banks. Tonight should be different though.
All eight favourites came through their respective quarter-finals and the only one that dropped a set was Venus Williams (to Jankovic), but hopefully the weekend’s semi-finals and finals will prove a little more competitive.
Looking ahead to today’s matches, I’m obviously firmly in the Kuznetsova camp in the first ladies semi, but the match of the weekend could well prove to be Venus Williams v Justine Henin and this really deserves to be for the title. Will the Venus power game get the better of Henin again? The American holds a 7-1 advantage over Henin, but they haven’t faced one another since 2003 and Henin has improved considerably since then, so this is a tough match to call. Obviously, I hope it will go the distance, with the winner being too tired to raise their game for the final for the sake of my bet, but whatever the outcome, it will be an unmissable match.
The men’s final four is again dominated by Federer and there are really only a couple of questions to be answered here. Firstly, can Davydenko grind out his first win over the Swiss maestro in ten attempts and secondly, can Djokovic fight the fatigue and continue his run?
The Russian has not dropped a set so far in the tournament and ran Fed close at Roland Garros earlier this year, so you would have to say that he is getting nearer to that elusive first victory over the world number one, but can he go the extra mile and create a shock? The way Federer is playing, it seems a forlorn hope.
Djokovic v Ferrer will be a tight match I feel, given the amount of court time that the young Serb has put in this week and it might be a step too far for him. If he has enough left in the tank though he should beat the Valencian, who has admitted that hard is not his favourite surface and would most likely be soundly beaten by Federer or Davydenko if either turned out to be the championship match.
So, no real surprises at all in the semi final protagonists, with the possible exception of Ferrer, but perhaps there’s a shock or two still to occur in these championships and with no night match this evening, I might be able to give myself a break from sleep deprivation and enjoy the possibilities.
US Open Day 10 - Roddick comes up short
Day number 10 of the 2007 US Open saw the completion of the ladies quarter-finals and number 15 in the Roger Federer v Andy Roddick series of matches.
First up on Ashe today was what looked a competitive encounter between Shahar Peer and Anna Chakvetadze, but after a promising start, the Israeli fell away dramatically.
From 4-2 ahead in the first set, Peer lost ten out of the next eleven games for a disappointing 4-6, 1-6 reverse, despite the assistance of a noisy support group who needed to be made aware of tennis etiquette by the umpire.
So, Chakvetadze advanced to the semi-finals where she will play my bet, Svetlana Kuznetsova, after the number four seed also advanced in straight sets in her quarter final against Agnes Szavay.
Sveta was never in any trouble and played her most dominant and impressive match of the tournament. I hope she is peaking at the right time and I fancy her to get the better of Chakvetadze on today’s form.
Next on Ashe was the first of the men’s quarter finals, between Tommy Haas and Nikolay Davydenko and this was a repeat of last year’s quarter final, won by the Russian in five after Haas had won the first two sets.
This for me looked to be the match of the day, as their previous two matches had gone to five sets and it didn’t look good for Haas when he chucked his racquet into the net in anger after losing his serve at 3-3 in the opening set.
From that point on it was all Davydenko. He went a set and a break up and Haas looked deflated and on the way out until he somehow broke back, but he failed to hold an epic eighth game, which included a diving volley winner and an explosion at the umpire, both from Haas of course and the Russian went two sets up.
For my money, Davydenko represents all that’s wrong with many sports stars these days. Totally dull and emotionless and although he possesses some real talent, I would be gutted to have bought a ticket for the US Open and then discovered that I had to suffer a Davydenko match. Even when he wins a brilliant rally, there’s barely a flicker of a change in his countenance.
The New York crowd were behind Tommy, presumably for the same reason, but at least I had the option to switch off, start to fill in my tax return and wait for Williams v Jankovic for some entertainment. For the record, the charismatic Russian won the match 6-3, 6-3, 6-4; Tommy’s Dunlop’s took a beating and my tax return is on it’s way to HM Customs & Excise.
The hopes of the Williams family rested on the not unsubstantial shoulders of Venus, after Serena’s rather graceless defeat to Justine Henin on Tuesday night. I was surprised that Serena was quoted as saying, “she made a lot of lucky shots”; from where I was sitting, Henin outplayed Serena and appears to have her number at this point in their careers.
Jankovic got off to a great start by breaking Venus in the first game with a delightful lob and went on to deservedly take the first set by 6-4 with some great defensive play and great passes down the line. She must have been inspired by comic legend, Larry David’s appearance at courtside and too many unforced errors from Williams also had a slight bearing on the outcome of set one.
Venus stepped on the gas in the second set and took it 6-1, but Jankovic was far from done and there were no breaks of serve in the decider and therefore a tie break was required to separate these two.
Jankovic had hardly put a foot wrong in the third set, but made several unforced errors in the breaker and left herself too much to do from 2-5 down. Venus claimed the victory with a drive volley and we have a ladies semi-final to savour.
It was after 3 am again when Roddick and Federer took to the court and I am starting to resemble Keith Richards after a heavy session at the moment.
Both men, for reasons known only to themselves, turned up in all black and surely this would be a quick win for the Swiss maestro and so it proved.
Although Roddick took the first two sets to breakers, Fed was always in control and recorded his fourteenth win from fifteen starts against A-Rod, who quite simply will never beat Federer in a slam, regardless of the amount of cheerleaders he employs.
First up on Ashe today was what looked a competitive encounter between Shahar Peer and Anna Chakvetadze, but after a promising start, the Israeli fell away dramatically.
From 4-2 ahead in the first set, Peer lost ten out of the next eleven games for a disappointing 4-6, 1-6 reverse, despite the assistance of a noisy support group who needed to be made aware of tennis etiquette by the umpire.
So, Chakvetadze advanced to the semi-finals where she will play my bet, Svetlana Kuznetsova, after the number four seed also advanced in straight sets in her quarter final against Agnes Szavay.
Sveta was never in any trouble and played her most dominant and impressive match of the tournament. I hope she is peaking at the right time and I fancy her to get the better of Chakvetadze on today’s form.
Next on Ashe was the first of the men’s quarter finals, between Tommy Haas and Nikolay Davydenko and this was a repeat of last year’s quarter final, won by the Russian in five after Haas had won the first two sets.
This for me looked to be the match of the day, as their previous two matches had gone to five sets and it didn’t look good for Haas when he chucked his racquet into the net in anger after losing his serve at 3-3 in the opening set.
From that point on it was all Davydenko. He went a set and a break up and Haas looked deflated and on the way out until he somehow broke back, but he failed to hold an epic eighth game, which included a diving volley winner and an explosion at the umpire, both from Haas of course and the Russian went two sets up.
For my money, Davydenko represents all that’s wrong with many sports stars these days. Totally dull and emotionless and although he possesses some real talent, I would be gutted to have bought a ticket for the US Open and then discovered that I had to suffer a Davydenko match. Even when he wins a brilliant rally, there’s barely a flicker of a change in his countenance.
The New York crowd were behind Tommy, presumably for the same reason, but at least I had the option to switch off, start to fill in my tax return and wait for Williams v Jankovic for some entertainment. For the record, the charismatic Russian won the match 6-3, 6-3, 6-4; Tommy’s Dunlop’s took a beating and my tax return is on it’s way to HM Customs & Excise.
The hopes of the Williams family rested on the not unsubstantial shoulders of Venus, after Serena’s rather graceless defeat to Justine Henin on Tuesday night. I was surprised that Serena was quoted as saying, “she made a lot of lucky shots”; from where I was sitting, Henin outplayed Serena and appears to have her number at this point in their careers.
Jankovic got off to a great start by breaking Venus in the first game with a delightful lob and went on to deservedly take the first set by 6-4 with some great defensive play and great passes down the line. She must have been inspired by comic legend, Larry David’s appearance at courtside and too many unforced errors from Williams also had a slight bearing on the outcome of set one.
Venus stepped on the gas in the second set and took it 6-1, but Jankovic was far from done and there were no breaks of serve in the decider and therefore a tie break was required to separate these two.
Jankovic had hardly put a foot wrong in the third set, but made several unforced errors in the breaker and left herself too much to do from 2-5 down. Venus claimed the victory with a drive volley and we have a ladies semi-final to savour.
It was after 3 am again when Roddick and Federer took to the court and I am starting to resemble Keith Richards after a heavy session at the moment.
Both men, for reasons known only to themselves, turned up in all black and surely this would be a quick win for the Swiss maestro and so it proved.
Although Roddick took the first two sets to breakers, Fed was always in control and recorded his fourteenth win from fifteen starts against A-Rod, who quite simply will never beat Federer in a slam, regardless of the amount of cheerleaders he employs.
Wednesday, 5 September 2007
US Open Day 9 - Nadal, Serena fall
Day 9 in New York saw the completion of the men’s fourth round matches and another much anticipated tussle between Justine Henin and Serena Williams.
First match of the day on Armstrong was a tight contest between Stanislas Wawrinka and Juan Ignacio Chela and this one was an entertaining and close contest that went all the way.
Wawrinka was the first to show and easily took the first set 6-4, only to lose his way and allow Chela back into it – the Argentine took the second set 6-2.
Several breaks of serve by each man, reminiscent of a WTA match, meant the third set had to be decided by way of a tie break and Chela stepped it up to take the set and Wawrinka smashed his racquet into the floor hard twice, completely obliterating it and getting rid of his frustration.
Stan has gone through a few Head’s this week and has emerged as a surprise contender for stroppiest player of the fortnight, but Chela made a late entry with a smash after losing his serve at the start of the fifth, after being blown away in set four.
Chela came back from the loss of his service to take the match 6-4 in the fifth and Wawrinka really let the racquet have it and it will take someone having an almighty strop to overtake Stan now in the racquet smashing stakes.
To calm things down a bit, I decided upon a brief sojourn onto Armstrong to have a look at what I thought was a ladies doubles quarter-final match, but what Bethanie Mattek had turned into a wannabe porn star’s convention.
I thought that Federer had been badly advised by his stylist yesterday, but Mattek’s skin tight tiger print outfit was presumably all her own doing and she certainly wins points for bravery if not fashion.
After a few minutes of that, it was back to Ashe and Djokovic’s continuing physical struggles re-emerged in the match with Juan Monaco.
My Serbian hope took the first two sets, but appeared to be struggling and had the trainer out frequently. This was not good news for my tournament wager, but Djokovic fought his way to a match point in the third set tie break, despite Monaco being penalised a point for a ball dropping out of his pocket in the middle of a rally at 5-3 ahead. Monaco saw the breaker through and set up a fourth.
Djoko dug deep though and saw the match through 6-1 in the fourth set for a hard fought victory. Sadly, even the terrible commentary from Barry Cowan and in particular Sam Smith, who did their best to put Novak’s performance down, couldn’t detract from a fine win for the Serb over a tough opponent, playing at the top of his game – something that neither Cowan nor Smith know anything about incidentally.
In fact, this disgraceful hypocrisy led me to double check the tour records of this pair and other than chucking away a two set lead against Sampras at Wimbledon that I recall only too well, Cowan’s career week was a victory in a challenger in Brazil in 2001 – value US$3,600 – with a finals victory over Andy Ram (ranking 285). Total wins on the main tour - 5 with 21 losses.
Smith of course was almost as bad, with seven first round exits at Wimbledon to her name from eight attempts and a paltry three titles on the ITF circuit (the challenger’s of women’s tennis) in a twelve year career. How these two have the cheek to criticise Djokovic beggar’s belief. John Barrett, Mark Cox, Pat Cash - come back, all is forgiven.
Anyway, I digress and the match of the day was up next – Justine Henin v Serena Williams. I had my cash and hopes resting on Serena, but she couldn’t quite come up with the goods this evening.
The American lost her serve early on, but eventually broke back to set up a set point on the Henin serve at 5-6, but the Belgian held on to force a tie break, which she took and never looked back from there.
Serena was making way too many unforced errors and although she had her chances, she couldn’t take them and Henin ran away with it in the end by 7-6, 6-1.
It was a late one tonight and by the time Nadal v Ferrer arrived on court it was after 3 am and I couldn’t face a three hour marathon of sock adjusting from Nadal, so I called it quits. He lost in four and my Djoko wager lives to fight another day… just.
First match of the day on Armstrong was a tight contest between Stanislas Wawrinka and Juan Ignacio Chela and this one was an entertaining and close contest that went all the way.
Wawrinka was the first to show and easily took the first set 6-4, only to lose his way and allow Chela back into it – the Argentine took the second set 6-2.
Several breaks of serve by each man, reminiscent of a WTA match, meant the third set had to be decided by way of a tie break and Chela stepped it up to take the set and Wawrinka smashed his racquet into the floor hard twice, completely obliterating it and getting rid of his frustration.
Stan has gone through a few Head’s this week and has emerged as a surprise contender for stroppiest player of the fortnight, but Chela made a late entry with a smash after losing his serve at the start of the fifth, after being blown away in set four.
Chela came back from the loss of his service to take the match 6-4 in the fifth and Wawrinka really let the racquet have it and it will take someone having an almighty strop to overtake Stan now in the racquet smashing stakes.
To calm things down a bit, I decided upon a brief sojourn onto Armstrong to have a look at what I thought was a ladies doubles quarter-final match, but what Bethanie Mattek had turned into a wannabe porn star’s convention.
I thought that Federer had been badly advised by his stylist yesterday, but Mattek’s skin tight tiger print outfit was presumably all her own doing and she certainly wins points for bravery if not fashion.
After a few minutes of that, it was back to Ashe and Djokovic’s continuing physical struggles re-emerged in the match with Juan Monaco.
My Serbian hope took the first two sets, but appeared to be struggling and had the trainer out frequently. This was not good news for my tournament wager, but Djokovic fought his way to a match point in the third set tie break, despite Monaco being penalised a point for a ball dropping out of his pocket in the middle of a rally at 5-3 ahead. Monaco saw the breaker through and set up a fourth.
Djoko dug deep though and saw the match through 6-1 in the fourth set for a hard fought victory. Sadly, even the terrible commentary from Barry Cowan and in particular Sam Smith, who did their best to put Novak’s performance down, couldn’t detract from a fine win for the Serb over a tough opponent, playing at the top of his game – something that neither Cowan nor Smith know anything about incidentally.
In fact, this disgraceful hypocrisy led me to double check the tour records of this pair and other than chucking away a two set lead against Sampras at Wimbledon that I recall only too well, Cowan’s career week was a victory in a challenger in Brazil in 2001 – value US$3,600 – with a finals victory over Andy Ram (ranking 285). Total wins on the main tour - 5 with 21 losses.
Smith of course was almost as bad, with seven first round exits at Wimbledon to her name from eight attempts and a paltry three titles on the ITF circuit (the challenger’s of women’s tennis) in a twelve year career. How these two have the cheek to criticise Djokovic beggar’s belief. John Barrett, Mark Cox, Pat Cash - come back, all is forgiven.
Anyway, I digress and the match of the day was up next – Justine Henin v Serena Williams. I had my cash and hopes resting on Serena, but she couldn’t quite come up with the goods this evening.
The American lost her serve early on, but eventually broke back to set up a set point on the Henin serve at 5-6, but the Belgian held on to force a tie break, which she took and never looked back from there.
Serena was making way too many unforced errors and although she had her chances, she couldn’t take them and Henin ran away with it in the end by 7-6, 6-1.
It was a late one tonight and by the time Nadal v Ferrer arrived on court it was after 3 am and I couldn’t face a three hour marathon of sock adjusting from Nadal, so I called it quits. He lost in four and my Djoko wager lives to fight another day… just.
Tuesday, 4 September 2007
US Open Day 8 - The J-Block silenced
Into the second week then at Flushing Meadows and the Labor Day holiday saw fourth round outings for the likes of Federer, Roddick and Blake, along with the ladies in the bottom half of the draw, who were looking to take advantage of an easier than anticipated route to the final.
Svetlana Kuznetsova was first up today on an extremely blustery Ashe and I was looking for a straightforward victory here to boost my chances of profit this week. The Russian’s opponent was the Hingis-conquering Victoria Azarenka, who seemed to be a bit overawed by the occasion and as a result, was thumped in straight sets.
Over on Armstrong, Agnes Szavay and Julia Vakulenko were attempting to reach the quarter finals and a date with Sveta – something I’m quite pleased that I’ve never experienced – and this was a nervy, error strewn encounter, possibly exacerbated by the windy conditions.
Once again I was lumbered with Kent Brockman on commentary and that combined with the poor standard of tennis made me switch off and wait for Roddick v Berdych to start. Szavay and Vakulenko were making me nervous and I couldn’t take it. If Kuznetsova doesn’t beat the winner out of these two, I’ll be very disappointed.
I was hoping that Berdych would dump the aggravating Roddick/Connors combo out of the tournament and I’ve never been so glad to hear the dulcet tones of Leif Shiras and Peter Fleming from the box.
Not known as much of a fighter when the chips are down, my hopes appeared to be forlorn when Berdych chucked away the opening game of the match and called the trainer after about five minutes. He did recover to serve for the set, but couldn’t hack it and was easily broken, leading to a tie break.
Berdych had the first set point on his own serve and in typical style, bottled it by netting a forehand, thus giving Roddick the opportunity, which he took. That is the difference between these two.
In the second set, Berdych strolled around as if badly injured – reminiscent of Jose Acasuso at his trudging best and quit after just two games. Thank you very much again Berdych! Wonder what the problem was this time? In growing toenail perhaps or a slight headache?
That cost me and what better way to recover than by watching someone else shouting in anguish and smashing their racquet in frustration. Enter Tommy Haas and he was playing home favourite, James Blake, on his own patch - surely a recipe for a Haas temperament explosion or two.
After the bizarre exit of Berdych, I was in no mood to suffer fools – enter the ludicrous ‘J-Block’ – James Blake’s rambunctious frat boy supporters club. Welcome to the US Open during week two.
The J Block looked like they had good cause to celebrate, as Blake went a set and a break up, but as always, Blake had a bad patch and Haas broke back and suddenly from nowhere the German was back in it and his racquets were safe - for the time being.
Haas served for the set at 5-3 and failed to see it out, but immediately broke the New Yorker to take the second set and silence the cretinous J Block, for the moment at least.
This match was proving tough to call and Blake came back to take the third set, before losing his serve in the first game of the fourth, to hand the initiative straight back to Haas, which he just held onto, courtesy of a millimetre on hawkeye. The German went on to bagel Blake and set up a decider.
No favourites in NY of course and every Haas winner was greeted by deathly silence, in stark contrast to the cheers after each point for Blake. Some of the crowd though were getting on Blake’s back after losing eight games in a row and this seemed to rouse him from his slumber.
It went to a breaker and Haas found his way to match point with a delicious backhand lob. Blake survived the first by the smallest of margins on hawkeye, but the very next point, Haas fired down an ace, which was challenged by Blake, however it just caught the line and it was game, set and match Haas.
After a straightforward victory for Anna Chakvetadze, it was time for Roger Federer to prove once again that he has no dress sense whatsoever, as he decided to turn up in all black again. I suppose it beats that ludicrous white jacket that he insists on sporting at Wimbledon.
Tonight’s lamb to the slaughter was Feliciano Lopez and he rather unwisely arrived wearing the same gear as Tomas Berdych. In fact it could have been the exact same gear, as it wouldn’t have needed washing after the Czech’s brief use of it.
Playboy Lopez loves the big occasion though and he stormed the first set 6-3 and had Federer in all sorts of trouble with that big lefty serve and he was swinging from the hip and hitting the target until Fed stepped it up a notch to take the second 6-4.
Federer, as ever, wasn’t rattled and moved through the gears to take it the match in four sets and set up a meet with Roddick.
Svetlana Kuznetsova was first up today on an extremely blustery Ashe and I was looking for a straightforward victory here to boost my chances of profit this week. The Russian’s opponent was the Hingis-conquering Victoria Azarenka, who seemed to be a bit overawed by the occasion and as a result, was thumped in straight sets.
Over on Armstrong, Agnes Szavay and Julia Vakulenko were attempting to reach the quarter finals and a date with Sveta – something I’m quite pleased that I’ve never experienced – and this was a nervy, error strewn encounter, possibly exacerbated by the windy conditions.
Once again I was lumbered with Kent Brockman on commentary and that combined with the poor standard of tennis made me switch off and wait for Roddick v Berdych to start. Szavay and Vakulenko were making me nervous and I couldn’t take it. If Kuznetsova doesn’t beat the winner out of these two, I’ll be very disappointed.
I was hoping that Berdych would dump the aggravating Roddick/Connors combo out of the tournament and I’ve never been so glad to hear the dulcet tones of Leif Shiras and Peter Fleming from the box.
Not known as much of a fighter when the chips are down, my hopes appeared to be forlorn when Berdych chucked away the opening game of the match and called the trainer after about five minutes. He did recover to serve for the set, but couldn’t hack it and was easily broken, leading to a tie break.
Berdych had the first set point on his own serve and in typical style, bottled it by netting a forehand, thus giving Roddick the opportunity, which he took. That is the difference between these two.
In the second set, Berdych strolled around as if badly injured – reminiscent of Jose Acasuso at his trudging best and quit after just two games. Thank you very much again Berdych! Wonder what the problem was this time? In growing toenail perhaps or a slight headache?
That cost me and what better way to recover than by watching someone else shouting in anguish and smashing their racquet in frustration. Enter Tommy Haas and he was playing home favourite, James Blake, on his own patch - surely a recipe for a Haas temperament explosion or two.
After the bizarre exit of Berdych, I was in no mood to suffer fools – enter the ludicrous ‘J-Block’ – James Blake’s rambunctious frat boy supporters club. Welcome to the US Open during week two.
The J Block looked like they had good cause to celebrate, as Blake went a set and a break up, but as always, Blake had a bad patch and Haas broke back and suddenly from nowhere the German was back in it and his racquets were safe - for the time being.
Haas served for the set at 5-3 and failed to see it out, but immediately broke the New Yorker to take the second set and silence the cretinous J Block, for the moment at least.
This match was proving tough to call and Blake came back to take the third set, before losing his serve in the first game of the fourth, to hand the initiative straight back to Haas, which he just held onto, courtesy of a millimetre on hawkeye. The German went on to bagel Blake and set up a decider.
No favourites in NY of course and every Haas winner was greeted by deathly silence, in stark contrast to the cheers after each point for Blake. Some of the crowd though were getting on Blake’s back after losing eight games in a row and this seemed to rouse him from his slumber.
It went to a breaker and Haas found his way to match point with a delicious backhand lob. Blake survived the first by the smallest of margins on hawkeye, but the very next point, Haas fired down an ace, which was challenged by Blake, however it just caught the line and it was game, set and match Haas.
After a straightforward victory for Anna Chakvetadze, it was time for Roger Federer to prove once again that he has no dress sense whatsoever, as he decided to turn up in all black again. I suppose it beats that ludicrous white jacket that he insists on sporting at Wimbledon.
Tonight’s lamb to the slaughter was Feliciano Lopez and he rather unwisely arrived wearing the same gear as Tomas Berdych. In fact it could have been the exact same gear, as it wouldn’t have needed washing after the Czech’s brief use of it.
Playboy Lopez loves the big occasion though and he stormed the first set 6-3 and had Federer in all sorts of trouble with that big lefty serve and he was swinging from the hip and hitting the target until Fed stepped it up a notch to take the second 6-4.
Federer, as ever, wasn’t rattled and moved through the gears to take it the match in four sets and set up a meet with Roddick.
Monday, 3 September 2007
US Open Day 7 - No joy for Chubby Dave
The end of the first week’s play in New York and the quality of the matches has been increasing almost daily as we reach the men’s third round and ladies fourth round encounters.
Day 7 started with what looked like a tough assignment for Serena Williams on Ashe against Wimbledon finalist, Marion Bartoli.
Serena had not impressed in her early matches, but was rarely troubled by the French woman with the bizarre service action in a routine straight sets victory, which represented an ominous improvement in form from Williams.
Concurrently on Armstrong, David Nalbandian and David Ferrer were slugging it out and after being down by a set and a break, Nalbandian surged back to take a two sets to one lead and Ferrer’s shirt bore the brunt of the Spaniard’s discontent, as he tore at it manically in frustration.
Ferrer looked down and out at a break down in the fourth, but an epic eighth game saw Nalbandian broken after eight deuces and the Valencian stayed strong to take the set to a breaker in which he outlasted Chubby Dave to take us to a fifth.
Whilst a fifth set was a blessing from a betting viewpoint, it meant that I had to suffer the same appallingly banal US commentator that had aggravated me so during the Davydenko v Kiefer encounter the other day. Whoever he is, he sounds like Kent Brockman from The Simpsons and I was 50/50 on whether to mute the TV for the duration of the match.
Chubby Dave was the first to have a match point at 4-5 on Valencian Dave’s serve, but he missed a very makeable backhand and the chance had gone. That was to prove costly, as Nalbandian lost his serve in the next game and Ferrer served it out to love for a fine victory that will probably grate with the portly one for some time to come.
Back on Ashe and I’d had a little investment in Venus Williams as a saver bet for the title and also for this match with Ana Ivanovic and this match-up turned out to be very one-sided, as Venus eased her way to a straight sets victory, encountering little resistance from the Serbian.
A more competitive match on Armstrong followed – a five set tussle between Robby Ginepri and Stanislas Wawrinka and this one turned into a battle of who could hold their serve and their nerve.
Stan had a warning for slapping a ball into the crowd and was lucky to escape a penalty for smashing his racquet in the fourth set after missing a sitter of a forehand, while at the other end Ginepri was as impassive as ever.
Wawrinka found himself with three match points at 5-3 in the decider, but Ginepri fended them all off before a Ginepri forehand hit the tape and sailed over the baseline for a Swiss victory.
Elsewhere, Henin had disdainfully dismissed Safina in straight sets and Moya outlasted Kohlschreiber in a five set thriller, which just left Novak Djokovic v Juan Martin Del Potro as the night’s entertainment.
After his marathon encounter with Stepanek, Djokovic must have been quietly confident of a quick finish tonight and he got one, with a trouble free straight sets win over the lanky Argentine. The only point of interest in this one was trying to work out whether there is any pattern to Novak’s ball bouncing on serve. The one time that Del Potro had 0-40 and three break points in the match, Djoko bounced the ball an incredible 24 times before serving. I’d certainly have been having a word with the umpire if I were Del Potro.
So, the end of an exhausting first week and today has brought me back to level profit, after some bad results earlier on. My outright bets are still in the hunt and week two promises some great tennis and excellent profit opportunities.
Day 7 started with what looked like a tough assignment for Serena Williams on Ashe against Wimbledon finalist, Marion Bartoli.
Serena had not impressed in her early matches, but was rarely troubled by the French woman with the bizarre service action in a routine straight sets victory, which represented an ominous improvement in form from Williams.
Concurrently on Armstrong, David Nalbandian and David Ferrer were slugging it out and after being down by a set and a break, Nalbandian surged back to take a two sets to one lead and Ferrer’s shirt bore the brunt of the Spaniard’s discontent, as he tore at it manically in frustration.
Ferrer looked down and out at a break down in the fourth, but an epic eighth game saw Nalbandian broken after eight deuces and the Valencian stayed strong to take the set to a breaker in which he outlasted Chubby Dave to take us to a fifth.
Whilst a fifth set was a blessing from a betting viewpoint, it meant that I had to suffer the same appallingly banal US commentator that had aggravated me so during the Davydenko v Kiefer encounter the other day. Whoever he is, he sounds like Kent Brockman from The Simpsons and I was 50/50 on whether to mute the TV for the duration of the match.
Chubby Dave was the first to have a match point at 4-5 on Valencian Dave’s serve, but he missed a very makeable backhand and the chance had gone. That was to prove costly, as Nalbandian lost his serve in the next game and Ferrer served it out to love for a fine victory that will probably grate with the portly one for some time to come.
Back on Ashe and I’d had a little investment in Venus Williams as a saver bet for the title and also for this match with Ana Ivanovic and this match-up turned out to be very one-sided, as Venus eased her way to a straight sets victory, encountering little resistance from the Serbian.
A more competitive match on Armstrong followed – a five set tussle between Robby Ginepri and Stanislas Wawrinka and this one turned into a battle of who could hold their serve and their nerve.
Stan had a warning for slapping a ball into the crowd and was lucky to escape a penalty for smashing his racquet in the fourth set after missing a sitter of a forehand, while at the other end Ginepri was as impassive as ever.
Wawrinka found himself with three match points at 5-3 in the decider, but Ginepri fended them all off before a Ginepri forehand hit the tape and sailed over the baseline for a Swiss victory.
Elsewhere, Henin had disdainfully dismissed Safina in straight sets and Moya outlasted Kohlschreiber in a five set thriller, which just left Novak Djokovic v Juan Martin Del Potro as the night’s entertainment.
After his marathon encounter with Stepanek, Djokovic must have been quietly confident of a quick finish tonight and he got one, with a trouble free straight sets win over the lanky Argentine. The only point of interest in this one was trying to work out whether there is any pattern to Novak’s ball bouncing on serve. The one time that Del Potro had 0-40 and three break points in the match, Djoko bounced the ball an incredible 24 times before serving. I’d certainly have been having a word with the umpire if I were Del Potro.
So, the end of an exhausting first week and today has brought me back to level profit, after some bad results earlier on. My outright bets are still in the hunt and week two promises some great tennis and excellent profit opportunities.
Sunday, 2 September 2007
US Open Day 6 - Sharapova falls
Labor Day weekend in New York and a sell out crowd had a feast of tennis to enjoy on Day 6 of the US Open.
The most intriguing of the early matches for my money looked to be Maria Sharapova v Agnieszka Radwanska. The Russian had had things all her own way so far this week, but the Pole looked a more competitive opponent and so it proved, as she served for the first set at 5-3.
Sharapova broke back, but her big forehands were not finding the mark and she served four double faults in the first set – perhaps due to the windy conditions - which combined to give Radwanska a set point that she took with a nice backhand pass down the line.
A Radwanska victory would be great for my bet on Kuznetsova and also because I had placed a small wager on the Pole for this match at 12 and for the event outright at 720 a few days earlier.
Another double from Maria meant that she had to dig deep and move into turbo shriek mode to hold her first service game of the second set and she turned up the power to break Radwanska. The serve was still a problem though, along with too many unforced errors and the Pole was gifted break points twice in Sharapova’s next service game. She couldn’t take them and Sharapova cruised through the set as the Pole’s level dropped off.
It looked all over when Maria broke again, but out of nowhere, Radwanska started playing again and earned three break points at 2-2 in the decider. Another double handed the break to Radwanska and she was in with a chance of a shock.
Sharapova had to fight off another three break points at 2-4, before yet another double fault handed Radwanska the double break and the chance to serve it out. Maria’s dad obviously wasn’t confident of a comeback and he left at 15-0; he was right to make himself scarce, as Sharapova gave the match to Radwanska with more unforced errors.
Once I’d finished congratulating myself on that result, I decided that the next port of call should be Tommy Haas v Seb Grosjean on Grandstand and it turned into an entertaining match, with Grosjean coming from two sets down to force a decider.
It was nice to see the Frenchman playing good tennis again after a poor year that has seen him slip to number 78 in the world and at times he seemed back to his best.
So, we had two twenty-nine year old guys wearing baseball caps back to front arguing with the umpire over net cords and it was the German who emerged victorious by 6-3 in the fifth.
Straight over to Ashe just in time to watch John Isner annoy Federer with his service bombs and take the Swiss ace to a first set breaker, which incredibly Isner took by 7-4 and had Barry Cowan rather over excitedly talking up an Isner victory.
Having no confidence whatsoever in the American’s ability to break Federer, I went back to Grandstand as soon as Isner lost the very next service game. I had money on Tamira Paszek, so switched courts whilst Federer went on the comeback trail.
The fact that I never returned to Ashe is testament to either the exciting Paszek v Schnyder match or the fact that watching Isner is little short of depressing. Whichever, the young Austrian prodigy came back from a set down to take out an ever-nervy Schnyder in a final set breaker.
Next up on Grandstand was Andy Murray in his third round match with Hyung-Taik Lee and in typical Murray style, he lost the first set amidst a prolonged strop at umpire, Steve Ulrich, for not overruling on a couple of Murray serves.
It was all happening out there – Murray limping like a puppy who’s had his paw trodden on; lunatics in the crowd getting over excited; Brad Gilbert holding his head on his hands and a fiercely pro-Lee support group. Great stuff, but the Scot was on the ropes and two sets down.
He pulled a set back and then the racquet went at the start of the fourth after Murray had lost his break advantage, before running into the umpire’s chair (again) and then booting a bin over after reaching a drop shot.
It was all to no avail and after holding off match points, Murray lost his own serve and the match and it was straight over to Ashe to see my wager on Shahar Peer come in right at the death in a final set tie break shootout.
What a day and Sky called it quits instead of showing Blake v Koubek, so an unexpectedly early night for me at 3.15 a.m.
The most intriguing of the early matches for my money looked to be Maria Sharapova v Agnieszka Radwanska. The Russian had had things all her own way so far this week, but the Pole looked a more competitive opponent and so it proved, as she served for the first set at 5-3.
Sharapova broke back, but her big forehands were not finding the mark and she served four double faults in the first set – perhaps due to the windy conditions - which combined to give Radwanska a set point that she took with a nice backhand pass down the line.
A Radwanska victory would be great for my bet on Kuznetsova and also because I had placed a small wager on the Pole for this match at 12 and for the event outright at 720 a few days earlier.
Another double from Maria meant that she had to dig deep and move into turbo shriek mode to hold her first service game of the second set and she turned up the power to break Radwanska. The serve was still a problem though, along with too many unforced errors and the Pole was gifted break points twice in Sharapova’s next service game. She couldn’t take them and Sharapova cruised through the set as the Pole’s level dropped off.
It looked all over when Maria broke again, but out of nowhere, Radwanska started playing again and earned three break points at 2-2 in the decider. Another double handed the break to Radwanska and she was in with a chance of a shock.
Sharapova had to fight off another three break points at 2-4, before yet another double fault handed Radwanska the double break and the chance to serve it out. Maria’s dad obviously wasn’t confident of a comeback and he left at 15-0; he was right to make himself scarce, as Sharapova gave the match to Radwanska with more unforced errors.
Once I’d finished congratulating myself on that result, I decided that the next port of call should be Tommy Haas v Seb Grosjean on Grandstand and it turned into an entertaining match, with Grosjean coming from two sets down to force a decider.
It was nice to see the Frenchman playing good tennis again after a poor year that has seen him slip to number 78 in the world and at times he seemed back to his best.
So, we had two twenty-nine year old guys wearing baseball caps back to front arguing with the umpire over net cords and it was the German who emerged victorious by 6-3 in the fifth.
Straight over to Ashe just in time to watch John Isner annoy Federer with his service bombs and take the Swiss ace to a first set breaker, which incredibly Isner took by 7-4 and had Barry Cowan rather over excitedly talking up an Isner victory.
Having no confidence whatsoever in the American’s ability to break Federer, I went back to Grandstand as soon as Isner lost the very next service game. I had money on Tamira Paszek, so switched courts whilst Federer went on the comeback trail.
The fact that I never returned to Ashe is testament to either the exciting Paszek v Schnyder match or the fact that watching Isner is little short of depressing. Whichever, the young Austrian prodigy came back from a set down to take out an ever-nervy Schnyder in a final set breaker.
Next up on Grandstand was Andy Murray in his third round match with Hyung-Taik Lee and in typical Murray style, he lost the first set amidst a prolonged strop at umpire, Steve Ulrich, for not overruling on a couple of Murray serves.
It was all happening out there – Murray limping like a puppy who’s had his paw trodden on; lunatics in the crowd getting over excited; Brad Gilbert holding his head on his hands and a fiercely pro-Lee support group. Great stuff, but the Scot was on the ropes and two sets down.
He pulled a set back and then the racquet went at the start of the fourth after Murray had lost his break advantage, before running into the umpire’s chair (again) and then booting a bin over after reaching a drop shot.
It was all to no avail and after holding off match points, Murray lost his own serve and the match and it was straight over to Ashe to see my wager on Shahar Peer come in right at the death in a final set tie break shootout.
What a day and Sky called it quits instead of showing Blake v Koubek, so an unexpectedly early night for me at 3.15 a.m.
Saturday, 1 September 2007
US Open Day 5 - Djokovic emerges triumphant
Day 5 at Flushing Meadows promised much – excellent betting opportunities, many top stars in action, Tiger Tim in round two and the rare prospect of a competitive night match.
Match of the morning without question was tournament second favourite and carrier of my hopes, Novak Djokovic, facing Radek Stepanek.
Having lost the first set on a breaker, Djokovic’s racquet went in the fourth game of the second set and you can see why he was getting vexed. Stepanek must be so annoying to play against, what with all the jogging up and down, bizarre celebrations, Henman-like fist pumps and in your face tennis.
A great service return winner up the line gave Novak the mini break in the second set breaker, but in the very next point Stepanek roared back, winning an extremely long rally. Stepanek’s little jumps and facial expressions went into overdrive as he took the lead, but a helpful net cord levelled it at the changeover, before both players gained and lost the lead and finally Stepanek put an easy volley into the net to hand the set to the Croatian.
There appeared to be a long way to go in that one, so I headed over to Grandstand for the ever watchable Marat Safin against Stanislas Wawrinka and I was greeted with the prowling, shouting, racquet smashing Safin that I had missed the other day. At 3-5 down, Safin had a break back point that he netted and the racquet bore the brunt of his frustration. It was to no avail through, as Safin’s decline continued with a straight sets defeat.
Back on Louis Armstrong, Stepanek served for the third set, but Djokovic broke the Czech for the first time in the match to level at 5-5, before losing his own serve and with it the set. This was looking bad – my main bet on the men’s side, down 2-1 in sets and having regular treatment from the trainer.
It looked like the end for Djokovic when he lost his serve in the first game of the fourth set, but immediately the Czech gave his serve away and was warned for hammering a ball into the crowd in frustration. I had a little extra on Djokovic for the tournament at 25 in the hope of a recovery.
An incredible rally set up a 0-30 chance and a big jump for joy from Djokovic at 6-5 and the very next point he had three set points to take us all the way and another missed volley from ‘The Alien’ meant a final set shootout.
Each and every possible vantage point was utilised on Armstrong, including standing room behind Row Z and the back row of Arthur Ashe to get a view of this classic encounter and the players received a standing ovation before the final set breaker, which Djokovic took easily and my bet was intact.
After four and a half hours I was in need of some respite and took a well-earned break before returning for Henman v Tsonga and sadly this turned out to be Tim’s last ever match at an ATP event, as Tsonga took it in four, largely with the help of some incredible serving. The end of an era and the man I first enjoyed watching in ’96 against Kafelnikov at SW19 leaves the tour after a fantastic career.
The last match of the day promised to be a competitive one, given Nadal’s well documented injury problems, but could Tipsarevic do enough to take him out, as the Serb has had injury problems of his own since Wimbledon?
This one turned into a battle of who could go the longest without calling the trainer and Michael Nowotny will be claiming over time after this one, as both competitors were regularly patched up during the changeovers. Nadal with his knees and then his finger and Tipsarevic with his dodgy ribs. Nadal will surely not last the distance in this event and Tipsy seemed to be there for the appearance fee – not the classic I was expecting and the Serb quit on his stool in the third set.
At this point I was hoping that Sky would switch to the Hewitt v Calleri match, which was looking like much the best of the night matches, but disappointingly for me they didn’t. Hewitt went on to lose after winning the first set and that has to go down as the shock of the day, but probably good news for an exhausted Djokovic.
Match of the morning without question was tournament second favourite and carrier of my hopes, Novak Djokovic, facing Radek Stepanek.
Having lost the first set on a breaker, Djokovic’s racquet went in the fourth game of the second set and you can see why he was getting vexed. Stepanek must be so annoying to play against, what with all the jogging up and down, bizarre celebrations, Henman-like fist pumps and in your face tennis.
A great service return winner up the line gave Novak the mini break in the second set breaker, but in the very next point Stepanek roared back, winning an extremely long rally. Stepanek’s little jumps and facial expressions went into overdrive as he took the lead, but a helpful net cord levelled it at the changeover, before both players gained and lost the lead and finally Stepanek put an easy volley into the net to hand the set to the Croatian.
There appeared to be a long way to go in that one, so I headed over to Grandstand for the ever watchable Marat Safin against Stanislas Wawrinka and I was greeted with the prowling, shouting, racquet smashing Safin that I had missed the other day. At 3-5 down, Safin had a break back point that he netted and the racquet bore the brunt of his frustration. It was to no avail through, as Safin’s decline continued with a straight sets defeat.
Back on Louis Armstrong, Stepanek served for the third set, but Djokovic broke the Czech for the first time in the match to level at 5-5, before losing his own serve and with it the set. This was looking bad – my main bet on the men’s side, down 2-1 in sets and having regular treatment from the trainer.
It looked like the end for Djokovic when he lost his serve in the first game of the fourth set, but immediately the Czech gave his serve away and was warned for hammering a ball into the crowd in frustration. I had a little extra on Djokovic for the tournament at 25 in the hope of a recovery.
An incredible rally set up a 0-30 chance and a big jump for joy from Djokovic at 6-5 and the very next point he had three set points to take us all the way and another missed volley from ‘The Alien’ meant a final set shootout.
Each and every possible vantage point was utilised on Armstrong, including standing room behind Row Z and the back row of Arthur Ashe to get a view of this classic encounter and the players received a standing ovation before the final set breaker, which Djokovic took easily and my bet was intact.
After four and a half hours I was in need of some respite and took a well-earned break before returning for Henman v Tsonga and sadly this turned out to be Tim’s last ever match at an ATP event, as Tsonga took it in four, largely with the help of some incredible serving. The end of an era and the man I first enjoyed watching in ’96 against Kafelnikov at SW19 leaves the tour after a fantastic career.
The last match of the day promised to be a competitive one, given Nadal’s well documented injury problems, but could Tipsarevic do enough to take him out, as the Serb has had injury problems of his own since Wimbledon?
This one turned into a battle of who could go the longest without calling the trainer and Michael Nowotny will be claiming over time after this one, as both competitors were regularly patched up during the changeovers. Nadal with his knees and then his finger and Tipsarevic with his dodgy ribs. Nadal will surely not last the distance in this event and Tipsy seemed to be there for the appearance fee – not the classic I was expecting and the Serb quit on his stool in the third set.
At this point I was hoping that Sky would switch to the Hewitt v Calleri match, which was looking like much the best of the night matches, but disappointingly for me they didn’t. Hewitt went on to lose after winning the first set and that has to go down as the shock of the day, but probably good news for an exhausted Djokovic.
US Open Day 4 - Santoro so close
Day 4 in New York and another busy one, with Andy Murray looking to emulate Henman’s triumph of yesterday amongst the early matches on court today.
So, straight over to Grandstand and Murray was taking on Jonas Bjorkman and the early signs were good for the Scot, but he failed to take advantage of his supremacy and lost the first set 5-7.
A painful fifth game of the second set seemed to last forever – there must have been ten deuces and definitely one code violation for Murray after swearing loudly over a missed forehand. Bjorkman held on eventually, but that game sucked the life out of him and allowed Murray back into it and he took the set and produced some great stuff in the third to take it 6-1.
The exertion and lack of matches seemed to take it toll on Murray though, as he wilted half way through the fourth, losing his serve and looking exhausted, but he broke back straight away and the set became a lottery, with Bjorkman eventually taking it by 6-4.
Murray was about to launch into a tirade at the umpire when Sky went to a well-timed (from their point of view) ad break. They’d probably had complaints from the earlier outburst and by the time we were back, the players were ready for the decider. At least Murray was and he found the energy to step up a gear and cruised through to the finish line, 6-1.
Most interesting encounter of the day matches promised to be Nikolay Davydenko v Nicolas Kiefer on Louis Armstrong, but this turned out to be a very dull, one-sided affair. On top of the poor performance from Kiefer, I had to suffer this from the US commentators: -
Commentator 1: “Right now Davydenko reminds me of a bus driver”.
Commentator 2: “Why’s that Greg?”
Commentator 1: “Well, he’s taking Kiefer to school right now”
Commentator 2: “Hmm”
On top of that nonsense, “Greg” went on to say how he thinks Davydenko has a good draw and a great chance in the tournament, before going on to mention that he would have to play James Blake (6-0 lifetime to Blake). Totally banal and I found myself in the disturbing position of shouting at the TV before switching courts. There wasn’t even a Kiefer rant to entertain me.
There was incident and controversy on ‘lucky’ Court 11 though, as Arnaud Clement fought off two match points in the third set breaker against Thomas Johansson, despite some very questionable line calls.
Clement, who changes his shirt at virtually every changeover, had a running argument with the umpire in French and with the crowd in English, as he was on the receiving end of a shocking call in the first game of the fourth set. He went into full-on Gallic shrug and arm flap mode.
It seemed to inspire the Frenchman though and the fourth set was full of high quality rallies and wonderful shot making – much of it from a pumped up Clement. German umpire, Roland Herfel was also on the receiving end of more moaning, this time from Johansson, as it went to another breaker, which Johansson took to claim the win.
Over on Grandstand, the Teutonic lunacy that I’d been seeking was in full swing, with the crowd right behind underdog, Philipp Petzschner, in the match with Haas. The underdog had his chances and had Haas resorting to his familiar rants, but alas it was to no avail and I had to put myself through the tedium of another Sharapova match.
Same dress, same result. The crowd surely must be looking for refunds about these night matches so far – total waste of time fare that should be played in the mornings, as opposed to at prime time, where excitement not tedium is required. There was the 20km ladies walk final live on Eurosport from the World Athletics and this seemed more appealing than watching Sharapova whilst waiting for The Magician v Blake.
Santoro made the wait worthwhile, when he bamboozled Blake with a few amazing shots from his repertoire of dinks and slices and levelled the match twice from a set down and forced a fifth set. Blake had never won a five-setter in nine attempts before tonight and he just squeezed past an exhausted Santoro, who clearly loved his night’s work and will be missed when he eventually hangs up his racquet. Now that was entertainment!
So, straight over to Grandstand and Murray was taking on Jonas Bjorkman and the early signs were good for the Scot, but he failed to take advantage of his supremacy and lost the first set 5-7.
A painful fifth game of the second set seemed to last forever – there must have been ten deuces and definitely one code violation for Murray after swearing loudly over a missed forehand. Bjorkman held on eventually, but that game sucked the life out of him and allowed Murray back into it and he took the set and produced some great stuff in the third to take it 6-1.
The exertion and lack of matches seemed to take it toll on Murray though, as he wilted half way through the fourth, losing his serve and looking exhausted, but he broke back straight away and the set became a lottery, with Bjorkman eventually taking it by 6-4.
Murray was about to launch into a tirade at the umpire when Sky went to a well-timed (from their point of view) ad break. They’d probably had complaints from the earlier outburst and by the time we were back, the players were ready for the decider. At least Murray was and he found the energy to step up a gear and cruised through to the finish line, 6-1.
Most interesting encounter of the day matches promised to be Nikolay Davydenko v Nicolas Kiefer on Louis Armstrong, but this turned out to be a very dull, one-sided affair. On top of the poor performance from Kiefer, I had to suffer this from the US commentators: -
Commentator 1: “Right now Davydenko reminds me of a bus driver”.
Commentator 2: “Why’s that Greg?”
Commentator 1: “Well, he’s taking Kiefer to school right now”
Commentator 2: “Hmm”
On top of that nonsense, “Greg” went on to say how he thinks Davydenko has a good draw and a great chance in the tournament, before going on to mention that he would have to play James Blake (6-0 lifetime to Blake). Totally banal and I found myself in the disturbing position of shouting at the TV before switching courts. There wasn’t even a Kiefer rant to entertain me.
There was incident and controversy on ‘lucky’ Court 11 though, as Arnaud Clement fought off two match points in the third set breaker against Thomas Johansson, despite some very questionable line calls.
Clement, who changes his shirt at virtually every changeover, had a running argument with the umpire in French and with the crowd in English, as he was on the receiving end of a shocking call in the first game of the fourth set. He went into full-on Gallic shrug and arm flap mode.
It seemed to inspire the Frenchman though and the fourth set was full of high quality rallies and wonderful shot making – much of it from a pumped up Clement. German umpire, Roland Herfel was also on the receiving end of more moaning, this time from Johansson, as it went to another breaker, which Johansson took to claim the win.
Over on Grandstand, the Teutonic lunacy that I’d been seeking was in full swing, with the crowd right behind underdog, Philipp Petzschner, in the match with Haas. The underdog had his chances and had Haas resorting to his familiar rants, but alas it was to no avail and I had to put myself through the tedium of another Sharapova match.
Same dress, same result. The crowd surely must be looking for refunds about these night matches so far – total waste of time fare that should be played in the mornings, as opposed to at prime time, where excitement not tedium is required. There was the 20km ladies walk final live on Eurosport from the World Athletics and this seemed more appealing than watching Sharapova whilst waiting for The Magician v Blake.
Santoro made the wait worthwhile, when he bamboozled Blake with a few amazing shots from his repertoire of dinks and slices and levelled the match twice from a set down and forced a fifth set. Blake had never won a five-setter in nine attempts before tonight and he just squeezed past an exhausted Santoro, who clearly loved his night’s work and will be missed when he eventually hangs up his racquet. Now that was entertainment!
Thursday, 30 August 2007
US Open Day 3 - Feldman causes an upset
Day 3 at Flushing Meadows promised to be an interesting one. The prospect of Tim Henman’s finale, along with the appearances of Henin, Federer, the Williams sisters, Gonzalez and Nadal to complement a couple of crazy Russians, meant that this was surely the day of the tournament thus far.
No question for first destination of the day – Louis Armstrong for Marat Safin v Frank Dancevic for what looked an interesting match-up.
The mental Russian has recently availed himself of the services of yet another new coach in an attempt to make the most of his incredible talent. It’s a poisoned chalice of a job that has proven beyond the likes of Lungdren, Wilander, Volkov etc and surely a psychologist is more the requirement these days.
I was expecting the usual Safin histrionics, but the only real explosion came from a loud speaker that inexplicably blew up during match point and Dancevic got a first serve out of it and clawed his way back, but the stay of execution was temporary, as Safin took the breaker for a 7-5, 7-6, 7-6 victory.
After a bit of court hopping, it was soon time for the second of the crazy Russians and Dmitry Tursunov’s attempt to finish our Tim’s tour career on Armstrong.
Henman started well, getting a high percentage of first serves in, to the delight of the pro-Tim crowd and I couldn’t resist possibly my final ever wager on a Henman match. I decided to lay a Tursunov 3-0 victory and hoped for one last roar from the Tiger.
It was a bright start from the Brit and the cries of ‘Come on Tim’ were ringing out around Armstrong, as he ghosted in at the net to earn a break point at 4-3. Could he do it? You bet he could – a Tursunov pass went wide and Henman had the chance to serve for the set.
Typically though, Tim started with a double fault, but improved to earn a set point and my cash was almost earned. The Russian snuffed it out and then came up with an amazing pass to earn a break point. I’ll miss this kind of drama when Tim goes, I’m sure. Back to deuce and a big serve gave Tim another set point. This time surely? Yeeess!! Great volley and I’m in profit for once on a Henman match.
Of course, he lost the second set by 6-3, but he came roaring back in the third to go an early break up, before Tursunov broke back immediately. This was turning out to be much more competitive than many people thought and Henman earned himself another break, with the help of some dodgy serving by Tursunov and he served it out for a two sets to one lead.
Tursunov was rattled by some vintage Henman play and they traded breaks in the fourth before Tim took at 5-3 lead. We’ve been here many times over the years with Henman, but would this time be different? Remarkably, yes and he served it out comfortably for a stunning victory.
No time for celebration though, as I nipped over to Court 13 to see Fernando Gonzalez in trouble against Teimuraz Gabashvili, down by a set and a break and looking on his way out. Indeed, he lost the second set to the Russian, despite a vociferous band of Chilean supporters cheering him on.
Anyone familiar with Gabashvili will know that he’s not the most handsome of men and bears more than a passing resemblance to 70’s comedy legend, Marty Feldman. The joke appeared to be on Gonzalez though, until he cranked up that big forehand and took the third set with the aid of a very dubious line call that didn’t exactly have Gabashvili rolling in the aisles. It then turned into a classic, with the Russian having the last laugh - coming through in five hugely entertaining sets.
No respite for me though and I was in danger of contracting DVT due to the fact that I hadn’t moved from the sofa for about six hours, with still another four to go, but I had Serena Williams to watch next and then Federer.
Williams won comfortably, without hitting top gear. The best moment of that match was when a disheartened Maria Elena Camerin, after failing to reach a drop shot, executed a perfect right-footed volley, narrowly missing an incredulous Williams.
As for Federer, well he entered the building dressed from head to toe in all black, a la Mike Tyson and 23 minutes later, it was first set done, curtains for Capdeville and bedtime for me.
So, not a bad day betting-wise - a nice bit of trading on Gaba v Gonzo put me in profit and I needed it after yesterday's disaster.
No question for first destination of the day – Louis Armstrong for Marat Safin v Frank Dancevic for what looked an interesting match-up.
The mental Russian has recently availed himself of the services of yet another new coach in an attempt to make the most of his incredible talent. It’s a poisoned chalice of a job that has proven beyond the likes of Lungdren, Wilander, Volkov etc and surely a psychologist is more the requirement these days.
I was expecting the usual Safin histrionics, but the only real explosion came from a loud speaker that inexplicably blew up during match point and Dancevic got a first serve out of it and clawed his way back, but the stay of execution was temporary, as Safin took the breaker for a 7-5, 7-6, 7-6 victory.
After a bit of court hopping, it was soon time for the second of the crazy Russians and Dmitry Tursunov’s attempt to finish our Tim’s tour career on Armstrong.
Henman started well, getting a high percentage of first serves in, to the delight of the pro-Tim crowd and I couldn’t resist possibly my final ever wager on a Henman match. I decided to lay a Tursunov 3-0 victory and hoped for one last roar from the Tiger.
It was a bright start from the Brit and the cries of ‘Come on Tim’ were ringing out around Armstrong, as he ghosted in at the net to earn a break point at 4-3. Could he do it? You bet he could – a Tursunov pass went wide and Henman had the chance to serve for the set.
Typically though, Tim started with a double fault, but improved to earn a set point and my cash was almost earned. The Russian snuffed it out and then came up with an amazing pass to earn a break point. I’ll miss this kind of drama when Tim goes, I’m sure. Back to deuce and a big serve gave Tim another set point. This time surely? Yeeess!! Great volley and I’m in profit for once on a Henman match.
Of course, he lost the second set by 6-3, but he came roaring back in the third to go an early break up, before Tursunov broke back immediately. This was turning out to be much more competitive than many people thought and Henman earned himself another break, with the help of some dodgy serving by Tursunov and he served it out for a two sets to one lead.
Tursunov was rattled by some vintage Henman play and they traded breaks in the fourth before Tim took at 5-3 lead. We’ve been here many times over the years with Henman, but would this time be different? Remarkably, yes and he served it out comfortably for a stunning victory.
No time for celebration though, as I nipped over to Court 13 to see Fernando Gonzalez in trouble against Teimuraz Gabashvili, down by a set and a break and looking on his way out. Indeed, he lost the second set to the Russian, despite a vociferous band of Chilean supporters cheering him on.
Anyone familiar with Gabashvili will know that he’s not the most handsome of men and bears more than a passing resemblance to 70’s comedy legend, Marty Feldman. The joke appeared to be on Gonzalez though, until he cranked up that big forehand and took the third set with the aid of a very dubious line call that didn’t exactly have Gabashvili rolling in the aisles. It then turned into a classic, with the Russian having the last laugh - coming through in five hugely entertaining sets.
No respite for me though and I was in danger of contracting DVT due to the fact that I hadn’t moved from the sofa for about six hours, with still another four to go, but I had Serena Williams to watch next and then Federer.
Williams won comfortably, without hitting top gear. The best moment of that match was when a disheartened Maria Elena Camerin, after failing to reach a drop shot, executed a perfect right-footed volley, narrowly missing an incredulous Williams.
As for Federer, well he entered the building dressed from head to toe in all black, a la Mike Tyson and 23 minutes later, it was first set done, curtains for Capdeville and bedtime for me.
So, not a bad day betting-wise - a nice bit of trading on Gaba v Gonzo put me in profit and I needed it after yesterday's disaster.
Wednesday, 29 August 2007
US Open Day 2 - a slight Querrey
If Day 1 could be described as being entertaining and profitable, Day 2 started out in the exact opposite fashion.
After much deliberation over the many interesting looking match-ups on offer, I for some bizarre reason, decided upon Ivo Karlovic v Arnaud Clement as my first match of choice, out on ‘lucky’ court 11.
Four tedious hours later, I was put out of my misery and into profit, having layed Karlovic in a single and multiple, but I was left musing about what better I could have put those fours hours to? Creosoting the shed was one offer from the forums, which was apposite.
The sole point of entertainment in the match was when Clement returned one of Ivo’s bombs by bending down into a squat and wafting the ball from off his nose and back at the feet of a stunned Karlovic, who fluffed the volley. That was in the first set – enough said.
Karlo is one of those players about whom everything is dull. The all white clothing, the lack of emotion, the deliberate, slouched gait and the one-dimensional game – awful viewing, other than some great returns and passes from Clement.
I was spent and the day got worse when I switched to Grandstand and watched in horror as the second part of my double went down without a whimper. Sam Querrey, hang your head in shame for a disgraceful effort in a straight sets stuffing by of all people, Stefan Koubek!
This is Querrey’s home slam and he was in great form coming into this event, so to go down 7-6, 6-1, 6-1 was pathetic; even the crowd on Grandstand were stunned into silence by his gutless display against a journeyman whose best effort in eight starts is a 3rd round appearance. Not that I lost much money on it of course.
It comes to something when you have to rely on Marcos Baghdatis’ cafeteria buddy, David Nalbandian for entertainment, but this is what I was reduced to and the slimline Argentine didn’t disappoint.
He was facing Ivan Navarro Pastor – the hairiest man to take to the courts since Pete Sampras retired and the crowd were behind the Spaniard from the start, for reasons best known to themselves.
Nalbandian annoyed the spectators by walloping a ball at a ball boy after twice double faulting and then attempting to use hawkeye on a court that doesn’t have it on a ball that was clearly inches out. They don’t approve of that sort of thing in NY – unless you’re a New Yorker of course.
The Spaniard’s number was pretty much up from the first set when he twice had the trainer performing a painful looking piece of physio on him and perhaps it was his bravery that endeared him to the crowd. Whatever, they were all-in for Navarro Pastor and he started to milk it in the third set breaker, but the theatrics merely produced a double fault from him and the end of a competitive encounter was nigh.
Meanwhile on Arthur Ashe, Maria Sharapova turned up in her red sequined evening dress for her match with Roberta Vinci. She obviously didn’t intend hanging around long en route to her night’s social activities and so it proved – Sharapova almost winning by way of the dreaded double bagel, 6-0, 6-1.
This was a mismatch of epic proportions and Vinci must have wished she was out on court 15, away from the spotlight, as Sharapova ruthlessly took the diminutive Italian apart.
Vinci came out with the Mick Channon reverse windmill arm celebration after avoiding the double bagel, but the joy was short lived.
Finally, the day ended as it had begun – with a bit of big-serving tedium and A-Rod didn’t disappoint with his usual one-dimensional display. The clueless Roddick almost lost the first set to Justin Gimelstob and after a set of that and the sight of Jimmy Connors’ awful white suit, I called it a night.
So, after a great Day 1, a terrible Day 2 followed and it's all thanks to you Sam Querrey - I'll remember you for this one, son!
After much deliberation over the many interesting looking match-ups on offer, I for some bizarre reason, decided upon Ivo Karlovic v Arnaud Clement as my first match of choice, out on ‘lucky’ court 11.
Four tedious hours later, I was put out of my misery and into profit, having layed Karlovic in a single and multiple, but I was left musing about what better I could have put those fours hours to? Creosoting the shed was one offer from the forums, which was apposite.
The sole point of entertainment in the match was when Clement returned one of Ivo’s bombs by bending down into a squat and wafting the ball from off his nose and back at the feet of a stunned Karlovic, who fluffed the volley. That was in the first set – enough said.
Karlo is one of those players about whom everything is dull. The all white clothing, the lack of emotion, the deliberate, slouched gait and the one-dimensional game – awful viewing, other than some great returns and passes from Clement.
I was spent and the day got worse when I switched to Grandstand and watched in horror as the second part of my double went down without a whimper. Sam Querrey, hang your head in shame for a disgraceful effort in a straight sets stuffing by of all people, Stefan Koubek!
This is Querrey’s home slam and he was in great form coming into this event, so to go down 7-6, 6-1, 6-1 was pathetic; even the crowd on Grandstand were stunned into silence by his gutless display against a journeyman whose best effort in eight starts is a 3rd round appearance. Not that I lost much money on it of course.
It comes to something when you have to rely on Marcos Baghdatis’ cafeteria buddy, David Nalbandian for entertainment, but this is what I was reduced to and the slimline Argentine didn’t disappoint.
He was facing Ivan Navarro Pastor – the hairiest man to take to the courts since Pete Sampras retired and the crowd were behind the Spaniard from the start, for reasons best known to themselves.
Nalbandian annoyed the spectators by walloping a ball at a ball boy after twice double faulting and then attempting to use hawkeye on a court that doesn’t have it on a ball that was clearly inches out. They don’t approve of that sort of thing in NY – unless you’re a New Yorker of course.
The Spaniard’s number was pretty much up from the first set when he twice had the trainer performing a painful looking piece of physio on him and perhaps it was his bravery that endeared him to the crowd. Whatever, they were all-in for Navarro Pastor and he started to milk it in the third set breaker, but the theatrics merely produced a double fault from him and the end of a competitive encounter was nigh.
Meanwhile on Arthur Ashe, Maria Sharapova turned up in her red sequined evening dress for her match with Roberta Vinci. She obviously didn’t intend hanging around long en route to her night’s social activities and so it proved – Sharapova almost winning by way of the dreaded double bagel, 6-0, 6-1.
This was a mismatch of epic proportions and Vinci must have wished she was out on court 15, away from the spotlight, as Sharapova ruthlessly took the diminutive Italian apart.
Vinci came out with the Mick Channon reverse windmill arm celebration after avoiding the double bagel, but the joy was short lived.
Finally, the day ended as it had begun – with a bit of big-serving tedium and A-Rod didn’t disappoint with his usual one-dimensional display. The clueless Roddick almost lost the first set to Justin Gimelstob and after a set of that and the sight of Jimmy Connors’ awful white suit, I called it a night.
So, after a great Day 1, a terrible Day 2 followed and it's all thanks to you Sam Querrey - I'll remember you for this one, son!
Monday, 27 August 2007
It's here at last - US Open Day 1
At last, after all the hype and prep tournaments are over, the final slam of the year has begun and what better way to start than by laying a few multiples, having a maximum bet of the day and lay of the day and settling down to watch the action.
Having layed big serving leftie, Chris Guccione, as part of a multiple, I thought I'd start the day's viewing with the Aussie’s match against the potential rising young star of US tennis, Donald Young.
There was a bumper crowd out on Court 11 for this one on a sunny New York morning and as usual in Flushing, the crowd were more than a touch partisan. The normal questionable behaviour was in evidence...shouting at inappropriate moments, cheering errors etc and this is what makes the US Open what it is and this was all at 11 a.m. The umpire had to step in as early as the first set when a Guccione first serve found the net at a crucial moment to the delight of one spectator. Roll on the night matches.
This was the first time that I had seen Young in action and he looks a decent young player and took the big Aussie down comfortably, even after losing a first set breaker and ran through the next three sets by 6-3, 6-2 and 6-3 and my multiple lay was in.
Next up was an energy sapping four setter over on Louis Armstrong, with a rather rotund Marcos Baghdatis taking on Belorussian beast, Max Mirnyi and the Cypriot is surely the oldest-looking 22 year old in sports, other than possibly Arjen Robben. His apparent lack of fitness told in the end, as Mirnyi ran out the winner by coming back from 1-5 down in the fourth set breaker to take out the number 18 seed, who will doubtless need to indulge in a comfort feed to get over this loss.
Most bad tempered match of the day was always likely to be Kiefer v Spadea on Grandstand and so it transpired, as Vinny - having lost the first set - got a bad call, which set him off on a rant that got worse when he got another bad call to go a break down in the second. Cue lots of juice-bottle throwing from Spadea and boos for the umpire from the pro-Vinny crowd. I'm guessing there's no hawk-eye on Grandstand, then.
As usual, Kiefer was muttering away psychotically to himself down the other end and you would need a degree in German profanity to understand a lot of it. When Kiefer served for the second set at 5-4 and threw in three double faults he went strangely quiet, but by contrast you didn't need to be a great lip reader to understand Spadea's words when he was walloped 7-1 in the resulting breaker, before surrendering meekly in the third set.
This was Spadea's 15th US Open and having never made it past the 4th round, he is like an American version of Jeremy Bates - you knew he was half decent but you always hoped he would win matches rather than expecting him to.
Speaking of strops, it's not often you see laid back Finn, Jarko Nieminen, smash a racquet and hit the umpire in the kidneys with a service return, but then again he's never faced the walking service machine that is John Isner before.
The Finn simply couldn't break Isner and by the time he'd seen the thirtieth ace fly past him, he'd had enough and my second multiple lay came in as Isner took it 6-7, 7-6, 7-6, 6-4.
My maximum bet and maximum lay both involved retirements, one to my detriment and the other to my advantage. Max bet Gilles Simon was two sets up and cruising against Alexander Waske, when the Austrian retired, so I collected earlier than expected on that one. However, my max lay - Seb Grosjean - perplexingly took Paul Goldstein apart in the first two sets, so I guessed something was wrong and sure enough Goldstein retired.
Elsewhere, Paul Henri-Mathieu again threw away a two set lead, this time to Fernando Verdasco and the Frenchman certainly has form in this area as French Davis Cup fans will no doubt recall.
An entertaining and profitable Day 1 then... roll on Day 2.
Having layed big serving leftie, Chris Guccione, as part of a multiple, I thought I'd start the day's viewing with the Aussie’s match against the potential rising young star of US tennis, Donald Young.
There was a bumper crowd out on Court 11 for this one on a sunny New York morning and as usual in Flushing, the crowd were more than a touch partisan. The normal questionable behaviour was in evidence...shouting at inappropriate moments, cheering errors etc and this is what makes the US Open what it is and this was all at 11 a.m. The umpire had to step in as early as the first set when a Guccione first serve found the net at a crucial moment to the delight of one spectator. Roll on the night matches.
This was the first time that I had seen Young in action and he looks a decent young player and took the big Aussie down comfortably, even after losing a first set breaker and ran through the next three sets by 6-3, 6-2 and 6-3 and my multiple lay was in.
Next up was an energy sapping four setter over on Louis Armstrong, with a rather rotund Marcos Baghdatis taking on Belorussian beast, Max Mirnyi and the Cypriot is surely the oldest-looking 22 year old in sports, other than possibly Arjen Robben. His apparent lack of fitness told in the end, as Mirnyi ran out the winner by coming back from 1-5 down in the fourth set breaker to take out the number 18 seed, who will doubtless need to indulge in a comfort feed to get over this loss.
Most bad tempered match of the day was always likely to be Kiefer v Spadea on Grandstand and so it transpired, as Vinny - having lost the first set - got a bad call, which set him off on a rant that got worse when he got another bad call to go a break down in the second. Cue lots of juice-bottle throwing from Spadea and boos for the umpire from the pro-Vinny crowd. I'm guessing there's no hawk-eye on Grandstand, then.
As usual, Kiefer was muttering away psychotically to himself down the other end and you would need a degree in German profanity to understand a lot of it. When Kiefer served for the second set at 5-4 and threw in three double faults he went strangely quiet, but by contrast you didn't need to be a great lip reader to understand Spadea's words when he was walloped 7-1 in the resulting breaker, before surrendering meekly in the third set.
This was Spadea's 15th US Open and having never made it past the 4th round, he is like an American version of Jeremy Bates - you knew he was half decent but you always hoped he would win matches rather than expecting him to.
Speaking of strops, it's not often you see laid back Finn, Jarko Nieminen, smash a racquet and hit the umpire in the kidneys with a service return, but then again he's never faced the walking service machine that is John Isner before.
The Finn simply couldn't break Isner and by the time he'd seen the thirtieth ace fly past him, he'd had enough and my second multiple lay came in as Isner took it 6-7, 7-6, 7-6, 6-4.
My maximum bet and maximum lay both involved retirements, one to my detriment and the other to my advantage. Max bet Gilles Simon was two sets up and cruising against Alexander Waske, when the Austrian retired, so I collected earlier than expected on that one. However, my max lay - Seb Grosjean - perplexingly took Paul Goldstein apart in the first two sets, so I guessed something was wrong and sure enough Goldstein retired.
Elsewhere, Paul Henri-Mathieu again threw away a two set lead, this time to Fernando Verdasco and the Frenchman certainly has form in this area as French Davis Cup fans will no doubt recall.
An entertaining and profitable Day 1 then... roll on Day 2.
Sunday, 26 August 2007
New Haven wrap
The unusual combination of heavy rain and a giant with a headache cost me a nice little profit in New Haven this weekend.
Under normal circumstances, you would expect Ivo Karlovic to bludgeon his way past Mardy Fish, however on this occasion the exertions of having to play a couple of three setter's back to back the previous day because of the rain, meant that Ivo didn't really feel very well, bless him.
So, once Karlovic lost the first set on a breaker (no, really), there was no way back and the bedraggled looking Croatian succumbed meekly in straight sets, citing a headache as his excuse for a lethargic effort in defeat.
So, not much in the way of profit this week, thanks to a lack of Nurofen in New Haven and James Blake went on to claim his tenth ATP Tour title with a straightforward victory in the final over his mate Fish.
In the women's event, my US Open tip, Svetlana Kuznetsova claimed her first title of the year in unusual fashion, when her opponent, Agnes Szavay, became Svata's third opponent in a row to retire against her.
Szavay had a great tournament though, coming through qualifying to make the finals and she took the first set against Kuznetsova, before a back injury forced her out after losing the first three games of the second set. She could be one to keep on the right side of for the remainder of the year.
Hopefully, this sort of good fortune will continue for Sveta the whole way through the US Open which starts tomorrow.
Under normal circumstances, you would expect Ivo Karlovic to bludgeon his way past Mardy Fish, however on this occasion the exertions of having to play a couple of three setter's back to back the previous day because of the rain, meant that Ivo didn't really feel very well, bless him.
So, once Karlovic lost the first set on a breaker (no, really), there was no way back and the bedraggled looking Croatian succumbed meekly in straight sets, citing a headache as his excuse for a lethargic effort in defeat.
So, not much in the way of profit this week, thanks to a lack of Nurofen in New Haven and James Blake went on to claim his tenth ATP Tour title with a straightforward victory in the final over his mate Fish.
In the women's event, my US Open tip, Svetlana Kuznetsova claimed her first title of the year in unusual fashion, when her opponent, Agnes Szavay, became Svata's third opponent in a row to retire against her.
Szavay had a great tournament though, coming through qualifying to make the finals and she took the first set against Kuznetsova, before a back injury forced her out after losing the first three games of the second set. She could be one to keep on the right side of for the remainder of the year.
Hopefully, this sort of good fortune will continue for Sveta the whole way through the US Open which starts tomorrow.
Friday, 24 August 2007
New Haven - A busy day
The recent loss of a day's play due to rain led to the main protagonists in the Pilot Pen having to play their third round matches and quarter final matches on the same day, leading to some surprising results and the odd choke.
My outright bet, Ivo Karlovic bludgeoned his way through to the quarters, despite losing the first set to Thomas Johansson and set up a meeting with Igor Andreev, who also came from behind to take care of David Ferrer.
The most profitable match for me came courtesy of a timely and not entirely unexpected choke by Agustin Calleri, who wasted three match points on serve against James Blake and who I layed at 1.02. Blake went on to win the set and ran through the next for a comeback win.
Another nice little profit was gained on the Fernando Verdasco v Jarko Nieminen 3rd round match, when neither player could hold serve in the first set - Verdasco finally holding one to take the set. Nieminen came back to win the second and a nice match for trading ensued.
My lay of the day was Tommy Robredo at 1.72 against Stanislas Wawrinka, who had been playing well in wins over Ancic and Monfils and who had easily too much for the Spanish wannabe model in a straight sets victory.
The quarter finals took place at around 6 o clock local time after a few hours respite for the players and Ivo Karlovic didn't seem adversely affected by the extra toil, serving at an incredible 92% first service points won in a final set breaker victory over Igor Andreev.
The Croatian behemoth fired 28 aces past Andreev and didn't face a break point in the match, despite being taken the distance and big Ivo will fancy his chances of reaching another final today, when facing Mardy Fish (4-0 h2h Karlovic).
Today's other semi will see Blake take on Paul-Henri Mathieu for the first time, but I'm happy with my money on Karlovic for the title, assuming that yesterday hasn't exhausted him.
My outright bet, Ivo Karlovic bludgeoned his way through to the quarters, despite losing the first set to Thomas Johansson and set up a meeting with Igor Andreev, who also came from behind to take care of David Ferrer.
The most profitable match for me came courtesy of a timely and not entirely unexpected choke by Agustin Calleri, who wasted three match points on serve against James Blake and who I layed at 1.02. Blake went on to win the set and ran through the next for a comeback win.
Another nice little profit was gained on the Fernando Verdasco v Jarko Nieminen 3rd round match, when neither player could hold serve in the first set - Verdasco finally holding one to take the set. Nieminen came back to win the second and a nice match for trading ensued.
My lay of the day was Tommy Robredo at 1.72 against Stanislas Wawrinka, who had been playing well in wins over Ancic and Monfils and who had easily too much for the Spanish wannabe model in a straight sets victory.
The quarter finals took place at around 6 o clock local time after a few hours respite for the players and Ivo Karlovic didn't seem adversely affected by the extra toil, serving at an incredible 92% first service points won in a final set breaker victory over Igor Andreev.
The Croatian behemoth fired 28 aces past Andreev and didn't face a break point in the match, despite being taken the distance and big Ivo will fancy his chances of reaching another final today, when facing Mardy Fish (4-0 h2h Karlovic).
Today's other semi will see Blake take on Paul-Henri Mathieu for the first time, but I'm happy with my money on Karlovic for the title, assuming that yesterday hasn't exhausted him.
Thursday, 23 August 2007
US Open advice
The US Open draw is out and once again the value bets lie in the womens tournament, where a very lopsided draw gives an excellent opportunity.
With Justine Henin, the Williams sisters, Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic all housed in the top half of the draw, it makes sense to make a dash for the exchanges and get on former champ, Svetlana Kuznetsova at around 40.
The Russian has a dream draw, with only Nadia Petrova of any note in her quarter and Sveta holds a 3-1 head-to-head record against her. Presuming Kuznetsova wins that one, she is seeded to face Maria Sharapova, (3-3 head-to-head) but it is far from certain that Sharapova will reach that stage bearing her recent injury problems in mind.
Sveta has had injury concerns of her own recently, but these fears have been allayed by her appearance in the Pilot Pen this week and the 50 that I managed to find on Betfair a couple of days ago is looking very attractive now.
At the head of the market, there are injury concerns over Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova and both Venus Williams and Justine Henin have won just one title each in eight starts.
There is nothing as seemingly straightforward about the men's market, but I'm sitting pretty with an ante post bet on Novak Djokovic at 36 from a month ago and I still believe he is the value even now at 10.
The young Serb has a tricky opener against Mario Ancic and then another difficult one awaits in the form of Radek Stepanek in the next round, but Djokovic did beat Roddick, Nadal and Federer to win the ATP Masters event in Montreal and these early tests may prove beneficial.
Elsewhere, Federer has his usual relaxed start, facing qualifiers in the first two rounds and then the likes of probably Nieminen or Isner, before Gasquet or Ferrero and then most likely Andy Roddick and some observers are calling that a difficult draw! Utter nonsense and Federer is guaranteed to reach the final with only Davydenko to add to the list above in the semi's.
I honestly cannot see a way that the likes of Roddick, Ferrero etc can take more than a set off the Swiss maestro at best, so given Federer's likely appearance in the championship match, it is worth an each-way bet on Djokovic to reach the final, where he will attempt to stop Federer becoming the first man to win four US Opens in a row since 1925.
There are some huge prices on Betfair about an upset, with the likes of Canas available at 420 and if an outside bet is your bag, then that might represent a bit of value, but I just can't see anyone bar Djokovic taking more than one set from the number one seed.
With Justine Henin, the Williams sisters, Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic all housed in the top half of the draw, it makes sense to make a dash for the exchanges and get on former champ, Svetlana Kuznetsova at around 40.
The Russian has a dream draw, with only Nadia Petrova of any note in her quarter and Sveta holds a 3-1 head-to-head record against her. Presuming Kuznetsova wins that one, she is seeded to face Maria Sharapova, (3-3 head-to-head) but it is far from certain that Sharapova will reach that stage bearing her recent injury problems in mind.
Sveta has had injury concerns of her own recently, but these fears have been allayed by her appearance in the Pilot Pen this week and the 50 that I managed to find on Betfair a couple of days ago is looking very attractive now.
At the head of the market, there are injury concerns over Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova and both Venus Williams and Justine Henin have won just one title each in eight starts.
There is nothing as seemingly straightforward about the men's market, but I'm sitting pretty with an ante post bet on Novak Djokovic at 36 from a month ago and I still believe he is the value even now at 10.
The young Serb has a tricky opener against Mario Ancic and then another difficult one awaits in the form of Radek Stepanek in the next round, but Djokovic did beat Roddick, Nadal and Federer to win the ATP Masters event in Montreal and these early tests may prove beneficial.
Elsewhere, Federer has his usual relaxed start, facing qualifiers in the first two rounds and then the likes of probably Nieminen or Isner, before Gasquet or Ferrero and then most likely Andy Roddick and some observers are calling that a difficult draw! Utter nonsense and Federer is guaranteed to reach the final with only Davydenko to add to the list above in the semi's.
I honestly cannot see a way that the likes of Roddick, Ferrero etc can take more than a set off the Swiss maestro at best, so given Federer's likely appearance in the championship match, it is worth an each-way bet on Djokovic to reach the final, where he will attempt to stop Federer becoming the first man to win four US Opens in a row since 1925.
There are some huge prices on Betfair about an upset, with the likes of Canas available at 420 and if an outside bet is your bag, then that might represent a bit of value, but I just can't see anyone bar Djokovic taking more than one set from the number one seed.
Wednesday, 22 August 2007
New Haven - A washout
The weather decimated the days play at New Haven yesterday, other than big John Isner overwhelming little Benjamin Becker and James Blake continuing his ownership of Arnaud Clement, there were no matches started on the East Coast.
Assuming the weather clears up sufficiently, I'll be on a treble today of Andreev, Karlovic and Mathieu, which pays 2.4 and all should win without too many dramas, although I'm a little skittish about Andreev v Montanes after the other day.
Having taken care of Clement, Blake looks good to regain the Pilot Pen trophy he won in 2005, but would you want to have too much on Blake at 3.15? I wouldn't trust him at that sort of price.
Looking ahead to the US Open, I've had a look at the womens event, which due to the lack of a Federer or Nadal, offers much better value and I like the look (not physically of course) of Svetlana Kuznetsova, about whom I've had 50 matched on Betfair.
The winner of this in 2004, Svetlana has the game for hard courts and is a great price for a number four seed, given the question marks about the top three in the betting.
Henin has won this title just once in eight attempts and does not carry the same aura about her as she does on clay and as such is no value at all at 3.3, while there are fitness concerns about Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova, both of whom have pulled out of their last events through injury.
Venus Williams also has just one win from eight in this event and is best backed when she's behind in one of the early rounds as she was at Wimbledon. There's no value about her at the current price of 11.
Young guns Jankovic and Ivanovic are under priced too and best looked at when the draw is announced, but my advice would be to find 50's about Kuznetsova before she wins the Pilot Pen.
Assuming the weather clears up sufficiently, I'll be on a treble today of Andreev, Karlovic and Mathieu, which pays 2.4 and all should win without too many dramas, although I'm a little skittish about Andreev v Montanes after the other day.
Having taken care of Clement, Blake looks good to regain the Pilot Pen trophy he won in 2005, but would you want to have too much on Blake at 3.15? I wouldn't trust him at that sort of price.
Looking ahead to the US Open, I've had a look at the womens event, which due to the lack of a Federer or Nadal, offers much better value and I like the look (not physically of course) of Svetlana Kuznetsova, about whom I've had 50 matched on Betfair.
The winner of this in 2004, Svetlana has the game for hard courts and is a great price for a number four seed, given the question marks about the top three in the betting.
Henin has won this title just once in eight attempts and does not carry the same aura about her as she does on clay and as such is no value at all at 3.3, while there are fitness concerns about Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova, both of whom have pulled out of their last events through injury.
Venus Williams also has just one win from eight in this event and is best backed when she's behind in one of the early rounds as she was at Wimbledon. There's no value about her at the current price of 11.
Young guns Jankovic and Ivanovic are under priced too and best looked at when the draw is announced, but my advice would be to find 50's about Kuznetsova before she wins the Pilot Pen.
Tuesday, 21 August 2007
New Haven - The stench rises again
You would have thought that after the furore surrounding the Albert Montanes v Martin Vassallo Arguello match in Poland, coming as it did immediately after Davydenko's effort the previous day, would have perhaps dissuaded Montanes from any questionable activity for a while. Not a chance and his match yesterday in New Haven with Teimuraz Gabashvili was every bit as dodgy as the other two.
Glancing, as is my wont, at the daily matches in the morning I recall that Gabashvili was a 1.4 favourite against Montanes, who was available at around 3.2.
Coming back to this match about ten minutes prior to its start, there had been a huge punt on Montanes, who was now 1.6 and Gabashvili was on the drift at 3.25. Sensing a fix, I dived on Montanes at 1.58 and soon enough, the Spaniard was down to 1.3 and this is all before the match had started.
Albert Montanes is the epitomy of a clay court specialist and his last match on hard was a straight sets defeat against an unknown Israeli in a Challenger in Spain in June. Prior to that, a first round defeat to Arnaud Clement in straight sets in Miami in March, a defeat to Tommy Haas in the first round of the Australian Open in January and the same result in the first round of the US Open last August against Hewitt are the only matches he has played on hard in a year!
This is why he was 3.25 in the morning against Gabashvili - because he's an awful hard court player and yet the match started and Montanes was 1.3 and the Russian 3.6.
The price contunued to tumble on Montanes and people were betting on a straight sets Montanes victory at 1.15 !!
Gabashvili was available at 10 when the Spaniard predictably won the first set and if you wanted Montanes, then 1.05 were the odds of reward. A disgrace and the Russian popped in six double faults just to make sure of a 4-6 4-6 defeat.
I won money on this match - not through talent, but through what appears to be a fixed result and I will be informing the ATP of yet another questionable match. Montanes reward is a second rounder with another player under suspicion in Igor Andreev and I'll be keeping a close eye on this one.
Elsewhere, as I predicted a while back, Tim Henman appears to be making the US Open his tournament swansong and this is a good decision from Tim, as his body can't take any more and he's at the end of the road anyway with just a couple of wins all year.
The former world number four has earnt me a few quid lately and I've enjoyed watching the Wimbledon circus each year, so best wishes to Tim for the future.
As far as competitive tennis matches were concerned yesterday, I made a few quid on Jose Acasuso, Mardy Fish and Luis Horna - the latter two in running, so it was a profitable day yesterday at New Haven. Fortunately for me I didn't get on Ancic outright, as he lost to Wawrinka in the first round and as far as match bets for today go, there's no stand-out wager amongst them, so I'll keep my money in my pocket today.
Glancing, as is my wont, at the daily matches in the morning I recall that Gabashvili was a 1.4 favourite against Montanes, who was available at around 3.2.
Coming back to this match about ten minutes prior to its start, there had been a huge punt on Montanes, who was now 1.6 and Gabashvili was on the drift at 3.25. Sensing a fix, I dived on Montanes at 1.58 and soon enough, the Spaniard was down to 1.3 and this is all before the match had started.
Albert Montanes is the epitomy of a clay court specialist and his last match on hard was a straight sets defeat against an unknown Israeli in a Challenger in Spain in June. Prior to that, a first round defeat to Arnaud Clement in straight sets in Miami in March, a defeat to Tommy Haas in the first round of the Australian Open in January and the same result in the first round of the US Open last August against Hewitt are the only matches he has played on hard in a year!
This is why he was 3.25 in the morning against Gabashvili - because he's an awful hard court player and yet the match started and Montanes was 1.3 and the Russian 3.6.
The price contunued to tumble on Montanes and people were betting on a straight sets Montanes victory at 1.15 !!
Gabashvili was available at 10 when the Spaniard predictably won the first set and if you wanted Montanes, then 1.05 were the odds of reward. A disgrace and the Russian popped in six double faults just to make sure of a 4-6 4-6 defeat.
I won money on this match - not through talent, but through what appears to be a fixed result and I will be informing the ATP of yet another questionable match. Montanes reward is a second rounder with another player under suspicion in Igor Andreev and I'll be keeping a close eye on this one.
Elsewhere, as I predicted a while back, Tim Henman appears to be making the US Open his tournament swansong and this is a good decision from Tim, as his body can't take any more and he's at the end of the road anyway with just a couple of wins all year.
The former world number four has earnt me a few quid lately and I've enjoyed watching the Wimbledon circus each year, so best wishes to Tim for the future.
As far as competitive tennis matches were concerned yesterday, I made a few quid on Jose Acasuso, Mardy Fish and Luis Horna - the latter two in running, so it was a profitable day yesterday at New Haven. Fortunately for me I didn't get on Ancic outright, as he lost to Wawrinka in the first round and as far as match bets for today go, there's no stand-out wager amongst them, so I'll keep my money in my pocket today.
Monday, 20 August 2007
Cincinnati wrap and New Haven advice
It appears that on the evidence of today's statistics that Police Community Support Officers solve one crime every six years - this is around the same timescale that James Blake takes a set off Roger Federer. At least he's got another two years to go to beat the Support Officer's record - standing as he is with the unenviable head-to-head stats after last night of 1-19 in sets against the Swiss legend; and the one was a tie-break!
I fear it might take Blake more than two years on last night's evidence, as my chances of trading my sizable profit on Blake disappeared after about five minutes in Cincinnati.
I had managed to find an adjacent bar with a tv with Sky Sports Extra on it at the wedding on Saturday in which to watch the last knockings of the Hewitt v Fed semi and so witnessed any real chances of success this week disappear, along with the Aussie's chances, as Hewitt blasted five unforced errors in a row in the deciding breaker. Fortunately I didn't have far to travel for a stiff brandy.
Blake in typical style kept my hopes alive later on by beating Davydenko for the sixth time running before producing an awful performance against Federer to lose for the seventh time running against Fed.
Blake was so bad in the final that Fed let him win a service game which contained four double faults, just to give the crowd something to shout about. It really was awful and Federer didn't trade much above 1.25 for the duration of the match.
So, despite some decent match bets, it was a pretty mediocre week and one where a 78.5 runner-up meant nothing in the end. There should be some sort of handicap system applied to Federer - it's too easy for him at the moment.
On to New Haven, Connecticut then and another of the US Open Series events and this week sees a bunch of clay courters trying their luck on the hard, along with top seeds Davydenko and Blake and the draw for this event seems very lopsided.
The top half contains, Davydenko, Blake, Mathieu, Clement, Ginepri, Nieminen amongst other specialist hard courters, whilst the bottom half houses the likes of Volandri, Acasuso, Starace, Montanes, Berlocq and Garcia Lopez and appears to be a rerun of some hideous minor clay court event.
So, obviously this is the value side for an outright bet and I've had a couple of wagers generously matched by Betfair punters overnight - these being 70 on Dominic Hrbaty and 22 on Ivo Karlovic.
Hrbaty has shown the odd sign of life in the last few weeks and is in the weaker section of the draw, where the highest seeds are Tommy Robredo, who Hrbaty beat 6-2 6-4 in Montreal last week and Volandri who I think I could beat on a hard court. 70 might look generous in a few days time - he is currently on offer at 38.
Karlovic also has a fairly straightforward draw and won't face anyone too taxing until a possible quarter-final with probably David Ferrer, who he has never met, so 22 is an ok price on the big man for this minor event.
I'm currently waiting for a price on Mario Ancic, who had to qualify and has been placed in Hrbaty's quarter, to appear and I may have an interest on the Croatian, depending on the price of course. He certainly has the quality to win this kind of tournament and is getting back towards full fitness after a long lay-off with illness.
I fear it might take Blake more than two years on last night's evidence, as my chances of trading my sizable profit on Blake disappeared after about five minutes in Cincinnati.
I had managed to find an adjacent bar with a tv with Sky Sports Extra on it at the wedding on Saturday in which to watch the last knockings of the Hewitt v Fed semi and so witnessed any real chances of success this week disappear, along with the Aussie's chances, as Hewitt blasted five unforced errors in a row in the deciding breaker. Fortunately I didn't have far to travel for a stiff brandy.
Blake in typical style kept my hopes alive later on by beating Davydenko for the sixth time running before producing an awful performance against Federer to lose for the seventh time running against Fed.
Blake was so bad in the final that Fed let him win a service game which contained four double faults, just to give the crowd something to shout about. It really was awful and Federer didn't trade much above 1.25 for the duration of the match.
So, despite some decent match bets, it was a pretty mediocre week and one where a 78.5 runner-up meant nothing in the end. There should be some sort of handicap system applied to Federer - it's too easy for him at the moment.
On to New Haven, Connecticut then and another of the US Open Series events and this week sees a bunch of clay courters trying their luck on the hard, along with top seeds Davydenko and Blake and the draw for this event seems very lopsided.
The top half contains, Davydenko, Blake, Mathieu, Clement, Ginepri, Nieminen amongst other specialist hard courters, whilst the bottom half houses the likes of Volandri, Acasuso, Starace, Montanes, Berlocq and Garcia Lopez and appears to be a rerun of some hideous minor clay court event.
So, obviously this is the value side for an outright bet and I've had a couple of wagers generously matched by Betfair punters overnight - these being 70 on Dominic Hrbaty and 22 on Ivo Karlovic.
Hrbaty has shown the odd sign of life in the last few weeks and is in the weaker section of the draw, where the highest seeds are Tommy Robredo, who Hrbaty beat 6-2 6-4 in Montreal last week and Volandri who I think I could beat on a hard court. 70 might look generous in a few days time - he is currently on offer at 38.
Karlovic also has a fairly straightforward draw and won't face anyone too taxing until a possible quarter-final with probably David Ferrer, who he has never met, so 22 is an ok price on the big man for this minor event.
I'm currently waiting for a price on Mario Ancic, who had to qualify and has been placed in Hrbaty's quarter, to appear and I may have an interest on the Croatian, depending on the price of course. He certainly has the quality to win this kind of tournament and is getting back towards full fitness after a long lay-off with illness.
Saturday, 18 August 2007
Cincinnati, Day 5 - Blake's further progress
Day 5 at the Western & Southern Masters in Cincinnati, Ohio was a bit of a mixed bag, with my bet of the day getting thoroughly beaten, but my outright bet rolls on.
It appears that I underestimated the form of Nikolay Davydenko in this tournament yesterday, but in my defence, I'm betting blind, as I can't use the interactive service until the US Open; the streams are crap and Sky have arbitrarily decided not to broadcast the night matches live until tonight. Therefore my total views of Davydenko this week have been zero. I'm still extremely cynical about the Russian's 'foot injury' and I'm of the opinion that he's about as trustworthy as Tony Blair in full grin mode.
That's the excuses out of the way - now down to business and basically any chance of profit this week boils down to one of two events occurring: -
1) Lleyton Hewitt overcoming a 0-10 recent head-to-head record with the Fed-Express and somehow removing the Swiss legend from the tournament this afternoon.
2) James Blake improving his 5-0 all time head-to-head over Mr Suspicious Betting Patterns to 6-0 tonight.
Frankly, I'll settle for the second event occurring, but Federer has been relatively poor by his own ridiculously high standards this week and even Nicolas Almagro took a set off him yesterday, giving an in-form Lleyton Hewitt a squeak of victory in hopefully boiling temperatures in Cincinnati's early afternoon sunshine.
Hewitt won't get a better chance than this to beat Federer, so I'll be checking the position on Betfair Mobile later on and no doubt simultaneously gravely offending the bride in the process at a wedding that I must attend, which rather thoughtlessly has been scheduled for 3 o' clock on a Saturday afternoon! As usual at these functions, I can foresee a situation arising where I become embroiled against my will in a lengthy conversation with the bride's Uncle Dave right in the middle of a set-point moment.
Meanwhile, James Blake saw off the not entirely unexpected tricky challenge from Sam Querrey in three sets in last night's late match and must be confident of reaching the final and making me some loot.
As the Blake v Davydenko encounter is scheduled for a 1 am start, I should be soundly inebriated by the time I crawl in to watch it and hopefully this will dull the pain of defeat, should it occur. Either that or I'll start trading, fall asleep and leave a big bet up for someone to take, as happened recently in the Isner v Monfils match in Washington.
Blake and Hewitt - I'm counting on you two - don't let me down!
It appears that I underestimated the form of Nikolay Davydenko in this tournament yesterday, but in my defence, I'm betting blind, as I can't use the interactive service until the US Open; the streams are crap and Sky have arbitrarily decided not to broadcast the night matches live until tonight. Therefore my total views of Davydenko this week have been zero. I'm still extremely cynical about the Russian's 'foot injury' and I'm of the opinion that he's about as trustworthy as Tony Blair in full grin mode.
That's the excuses out of the way - now down to business and basically any chance of profit this week boils down to one of two events occurring: -
1) Lleyton Hewitt overcoming a 0-10 recent head-to-head record with the Fed-Express and somehow removing the Swiss legend from the tournament this afternoon.
2) James Blake improving his 5-0 all time head-to-head over Mr Suspicious Betting Patterns to 6-0 tonight.
Frankly, I'll settle for the second event occurring, but Federer has been relatively poor by his own ridiculously high standards this week and even Nicolas Almagro took a set off him yesterday, giving an in-form Lleyton Hewitt a squeak of victory in hopefully boiling temperatures in Cincinnati's early afternoon sunshine.
Hewitt won't get a better chance than this to beat Federer, so I'll be checking the position on Betfair Mobile later on and no doubt simultaneously gravely offending the bride in the process at a wedding that I must attend, which rather thoughtlessly has been scheduled for 3 o' clock on a Saturday afternoon! As usual at these functions, I can foresee a situation arising where I become embroiled against my will in a lengthy conversation with the bride's Uncle Dave right in the middle of a set-point moment.
Meanwhile, James Blake saw off the not entirely unexpected tricky challenge from Sam Querrey in three sets in last night's late match and must be confident of reaching the final and making me some loot.
As the Blake v Davydenko encounter is scheduled for a 1 am start, I should be soundly inebriated by the time I crawl in to watch it and hopefully this will dull the pain of defeat, should it occur. Either that or I'll start trading, fall asleep and leave a big bet up for someone to take, as happened recently in the Isner v Monfils match in Washington.
Blake and Hewitt - I'm counting on you two - don't let me down!
Friday, 17 August 2007
Cincinnati, Day 4 - Blake's progress
Day four of the Cincinnati Masters was a very enjoyable if not completely profitable one and I'm in a chipper mood about the possibilities available for the remainder of the week.
My lay of the day - Carlos Moya at 1.6 - did eventually come through to win in three sets against Juan Martin Del Potro, but the match was easily close enough for a spot of trading and the Spanish veteran was on offer in excess of 4.4 at times in this match, so a small profit was the outcome of what appeared to be an exhausting encounter in 100 degree temperatures in Ohio.
My other advice - that of David Ferrer to trouble Roddick at 3.95 - turned out to be sound as the Barcelona supporting Valencian dealt with the still vastly overrated Roddick in straight sets and it always brings me pleasure to win money at the expense of the worlds 65th best ranked service returner.
Sadly for me, my spot of Schadenfreude with Roddick resulted in some bad karma, or some misplaced trust in Baghdatis, whichever way you look at it and the portly Cypriot cost me in his match with Roger Federer.
The Swiss maestro looked hot, bothered and ineffective in the first set and Baghdatis looked a bit of value at 3.0 when serving for the set, so I pounced on it like a photographer who had just caught site of Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan drunk in a bar and consequently, my fortunes took a dive not dissimilar to that of the two ladies in question. Baghdatis choked in grand style - throwing away four set points and the match was gone right there.
Make mental note... Baghdatis added to my list of chokers, along with Gasquet, Mathieu, Schnyder, Mayer etc etc.
So that cost me, as did an investment on JC Ferrero late last night. I figured that James Blake would at some point trade at odds against in this match and so I layed him when he broke Ferrero in the first set. How wrong I was, as for once Blake kept up his blistering start to take the Spaniard out by 6-4 6-1 and didn't face a break point, therefore offering no way of recompense.
This is not a problem though, as I'm holding an outright investment on Blake at 78.5 for the tournament and at the moment it's looking good. Blake is down to 16 for the event currently and is a 1.4 shot to progress against Sam Querrey tonight. Should Blake win that one, he will face either Davydenko (5-0 lifetime to Blake) or Ferrer in the semis.
I know I'm going to regret this, but today's value has to be Ferrer at 2.12 currently in that quarter final with Davydenko. The Valencian is in good form on serve this week and should be in good heart after the Roddick win, so I'm all over the 2.12 as bet of the day today.
Federer looked really uncomfortable in the heat yesterday and surely it's too much to hope for an Almagro victory today, purely because they will face off in the height of the sun?
My lay of the day - Carlos Moya at 1.6 - did eventually come through to win in three sets against Juan Martin Del Potro, but the match was easily close enough for a spot of trading and the Spanish veteran was on offer in excess of 4.4 at times in this match, so a small profit was the outcome of what appeared to be an exhausting encounter in 100 degree temperatures in Ohio.
My other advice - that of David Ferrer to trouble Roddick at 3.95 - turned out to be sound as the Barcelona supporting Valencian dealt with the still vastly overrated Roddick in straight sets and it always brings me pleasure to win money at the expense of the worlds 65th best ranked service returner.
Sadly for me, my spot of Schadenfreude with Roddick resulted in some bad karma, or some misplaced trust in Baghdatis, whichever way you look at it and the portly Cypriot cost me in his match with Roger Federer.
The Swiss maestro looked hot, bothered and ineffective in the first set and Baghdatis looked a bit of value at 3.0 when serving for the set, so I pounced on it like a photographer who had just caught site of Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan drunk in a bar and consequently, my fortunes took a dive not dissimilar to that of the two ladies in question. Baghdatis choked in grand style - throwing away four set points and the match was gone right there.
Make mental note... Baghdatis added to my list of chokers, along with Gasquet, Mathieu, Schnyder, Mayer etc etc.
So that cost me, as did an investment on JC Ferrero late last night. I figured that James Blake would at some point trade at odds against in this match and so I layed him when he broke Ferrero in the first set. How wrong I was, as for once Blake kept up his blistering start to take the Spaniard out by 6-4 6-1 and didn't face a break point, therefore offering no way of recompense.
This is not a problem though, as I'm holding an outright investment on Blake at 78.5 for the tournament and at the moment it's looking good. Blake is down to 16 for the event currently and is a 1.4 shot to progress against Sam Querrey tonight. Should Blake win that one, he will face either Davydenko (5-0 lifetime to Blake) or Ferrer in the semis.
I know I'm going to regret this, but today's value has to be Ferrer at 2.12 currently in that quarter final with Davydenko. The Valencian is in good form on serve this week and should be in good heart after the Roddick win, so I'm all over the 2.12 as bet of the day today.
Federer looked really uncomfortable in the heat yesterday and surely it's too much to hope for an Almagro victory today, purely because they will face off in the height of the sun?
Thursday, 16 August 2007
Cincinnati, Day 3 - The seeds fall
‘You live by the sword, you die by the sword’ is an oft used maxim that is relevant today as I count my losses from a twin tie-break defeat on a day of shocks and surprises in Cincinnati.
I was willing enough to accept a Jurgen Melzer victory over Ivo Karlovic the other day by way of two breakers, so I suppose I have to be magnanimous enough to accept defeat by the exact same method for Arnaud Clement last night in his loss to Tomas Berdych.
A first bet of the day defeat in four left me rather bemused and that feeling intensified when Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Richard Gasquet and Fernando Gonzalez amongst other seeded players, all departed Ohio with their hopes of success extinguished.
This shouldn’t come as a major surprise, as this event has a tendency of throwing out some odd results and champions and this is why I backed a bunch of long shots at the start of the tournament.
I wasn’t expecting another such gutless display from Gasquet though and he now joins fellow countryman Gael Monfils on my banned list. I refuse to squander another penny of my hard earned on that spineless delinquent. Gasquet retired after going through the motions for a set and a bit against Hewitt before retiring with a blister on his hand, which begs the question why he even started the match or entered the event with his hand in that condition.
Anyway, he’s out and so is Gonzalez, who can’t buy a win at the moment. He looked all at sea against JC Ferrero and went down in straight sets, thus opening up the draw for my surviving tip, James Blake, to make progress. Defeat for Gonzalez and Nadal has given Blake the chance to reach the semis, but first Blake must pass nemesis JC Ferrero, who has a 3-0 lifetime over the New Yorker, including two wins here in Cincinnati.
Having Blake as your last hope in a tournament is a poor position to be in. I can only liken it to standing around in baggage claim, hopefully looking at the carousel, whilst all the time knowing that you’re in for a whole world of pain, as the realisation of another disappointment dawns. Blake v Ferrero is at midnight tonight and I’m not expecting much sleep.
Federer meanwhile went about his business as usual and is now 1.36 for the tournament. Perhaps only the stifling heat in Ohio can stop him now, as he faces just Baghdatis and probably Hewitt en route to another final.
On to today and the only ties that interest me are Juan Martin Del Potro against Carlos Moya and David Ferrer against Andy Roddick.
I think the value bet of the day would have to be Del Potro to end Moya’s hopes at 2.7 or thereabouts. The Argentine won their only meeting – in straight sets on hard in Mumbai – and I wouldn’t back Moya as favourite against many players, although he’s in half decent touch right now. A two-point win on Del Potro would be the recommendation.
Once again, people seem to be over excited by Roddick’s chances here, but the guy is so limited it’s untrue and if Ferrer is on one of his good days he has a chance and is certainly too big at 3.6
I was willing enough to accept a Jurgen Melzer victory over Ivo Karlovic the other day by way of two breakers, so I suppose I have to be magnanimous enough to accept defeat by the exact same method for Arnaud Clement last night in his loss to Tomas Berdych.
A first bet of the day defeat in four left me rather bemused and that feeling intensified when Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Richard Gasquet and Fernando Gonzalez amongst other seeded players, all departed Ohio with their hopes of success extinguished.
This shouldn’t come as a major surprise, as this event has a tendency of throwing out some odd results and champions and this is why I backed a bunch of long shots at the start of the tournament.
I wasn’t expecting another such gutless display from Gasquet though and he now joins fellow countryman Gael Monfils on my banned list. I refuse to squander another penny of my hard earned on that spineless delinquent. Gasquet retired after going through the motions for a set and a bit against Hewitt before retiring with a blister on his hand, which begs the question why he even started the match or entered the event with his hand in that condition.
Anyway, he’s out and so is Gonzalez, who can’t buy a win at the moment. He looked all at sea against JC Ferrero and went down in straight sets, thus opening up the draw for my surviving tip, James Blake, to make progress. Defeat for Gonzalez and Nadal has given Blake the chance to reach the semis, but first Blake must pass nemesis JC Ferrero, who has a 3-0 lifetime over the New Yorker, including two wins here in Cincinnati.
Having Blake as your last hope in a tournament is a poor position to be in. I can only liken it to standing around in baggage claim, hopefully looking at the carousel, whilst all the time knowing that you’re in for a whole world of pain, as the realisation of another disappointment dawns. Blake v Ferrero is at midnight tonight and I’m not expecting much sleep.
Federer meanwhile went about his business as usual and is now 1.36 for the tournament. Perhaps only the stifling heat in Ohio can stop him now, as he faces just Baghdatis and probably Hewitt en route to another final.
On to today and the only ties that interest me are Juan Martin Del Potro against Carlos Moya and David Ferrer against Andy Roddick.
I think the value bet of the day would have to be Del Potro to end Moya’s hopes at 2.7 or thereabouts. The Argentine won their only meeting – in straight sets on hard in Mumbai – and I wouldn’t back Moya as favourite against many players, although he’s in half decent touch right now. A two-point win on Del Potro would be the recommendation.
Once again, people seem to be over excited by Roddick’s chances here, but the guy is so limited it’s untrue and if Ferrer is on one of his good days he has a chance and is certainly too big at 3.6
Wednesday, 15 August 2007
Cincinnati - Day 2
Typical. No bet of the day advised and each of the wagers I was toying with (but eventually decided against) waltzed home in straight sets without breaking sweat.
I think it would have been sheer madness to have steamed in on Robby Ginepri at odds-on, given his current form, but he always seems to make things happen at this time of year and the Floridian took out veteran Swede, Jonas Bjorkman, four and four.
My other fancy, Jarko Nieminen gave Tommy Robredo a good hiding, as I thought he might, but the Finnish number one’s record against top ten players is abysmal and given the negative head-to-head stats, I gave that one a swerve too.
Best bet of the day – and I couldn’t believe the odds on this one – was Arnaud Clement at 3.90 to beat Paul-Henri Mathieu and beat him he did, in straight sets, 6-4 6-2. Although I had made a small wager on Mathieu to win the event outright at 150.0, the price on Clement was too good to miss and I profited nicely on that match.
So, one of my outright bets falls at the first, meanwhile another one - James Blake cruised through his first round encounter with Alejandro Falla by 7-6 6-1 and next faces German, Nicolas Kiefer. Hopefully, Blake is over the stomach injury from last week, because he is due a good run and may well get one if fit.
My other outright bets begin their campaigns today and both have tricky matches. Richard Gasquet faces the ever-competitive Lleyton Hewitt and Fernando Gonzalez will be looking for some form against JC Ferrero.
There are some cracking matches on today’s coupon and the lay of the day for me has to be Tomas Berdych in his match with Arnaud Clement. The Czech has been having a poor run of late and tends to get a bit moody if he’s not dictating matches (think Nadal at Wimbledon and Volandri in Rome), which he may not be able to do against Clement. Berdych is not known as much of a battler when behind and odds of 1.41 are too short I feel against an opponent who is tough to beat when his confidence is up, which it should be after the Mathieu victory. The price of around 7.6 for a Clement straight sets win is a tempter and I may have a serious look at that later on.
Elsewhere on today’s card, it’s worth considering comeback kid, Mario Ancic, at 1.75 to beat Jurgen Melzer after his great win over Tommy Haas last night, assuming it hasn’t taken too much out of him. It’s difficult to know what sort of shape Ancic is in, following his illness, so small stakes on this one.
Also worth a look today are Radek Stepanek at 2.50 to beat David Ferrer and possibly a multiple to include Baghdatis, Del Potro and Djokovic.
I think it would have been sheer madness to have steamed in on Robby Ginepri at odds-on, given his current form, but he always seems to make things happen at this time of year and the Floridian took out veteran Swede, Jonas Bjorkman, four and four.
My other fancy, Jarko Nieminen gave Tommy Robredo a good hiding, as I thought he might, but the Finnish number one’s record against top ten players is abysmal and given the negative head-to-head stats, I gave that one a swerve too.
Best bet of the day – and I couldn’t believe the odds on this one – was Arnaud Clement at 3.90 to beat Paul-Henri Mathieu and beat him he did, in straight sets, 6-4 6-2. Although I had made a small wager on Mathieu to win the event outright at 150.0, the price on Clement was too good to miss and I profited nicely on that match.
So, one of my outright bets falls at the first, meanwhile another one - James Blake cruised through his first round encounter with Alejandro Falla by 7-6 6-1 and next faces German, Nicolas Kiefer. Hopefully, Blake is over the stomach injury from last week, because he is due a good run and may well get one if fit.
My other outright bets begin their campaigns today and both have tricky matches. Richard Gasquet faces the ever-competitive Lleyton Hewitt and Fernando Gonzalez will be looking for some form against JC Ferrero.
There are some cracking matches on today’s coupon and the lay of the day for me has to be Tomas Berdych in his match with Arnaud Clement. The Czech has been having a poor run of late and tends to get a bit moody if he’s not dictating matches (think Nadal at Wimbledon and Volandri in Rome), which he may not be able to do against Clement. Berdych is not known as much of a battler when behind and odds of 1.41 are too short I feel against an opponent who is tough to beat when his confidence is up, which it should be after the Mathieu victory. The price of around 7.6 for a Clement straight sets win is a tempter and I may have a serious look at that later on.
Elsewhere on today’s card, it’s worth considering comeback kid, Mario Ancic, at 1.75 to beat Jurgen Melzer after his great win over Tommy Haas last night, assuming it hasn’t taken too much out of him. It’s difficult to know what sort of shape Ancic is in, following his illness, so small stakes on this one.
Also worth a look today are Radek Stepanek at 2.50 to beat David Ferrer and possibly a multiple to include Baghdatis, Del Potro and Djokovic.
Tuesday, 14 August 2007
Cincinnati, Day 1 - Continued success
There are but two things certain in life - one is that Tim Westwood will never grow out of listening to rap music (despite pushing 50 years of age) and the other is that Tim Henman will lose a tennis match in three sets.
The latter happened again yesterday in Cincinnati and Henman might as well start to consider a career next to Greg Rusedski in the commentary box, debating how close they came to that elusive grand slam title.
Yes, as predicted, Chela took care of our Tim in three sets, thus denying the possibility of a very poor advert for British tennis in round two. A way past his best Henman against an injured Andy Murray would quite literally have been painful to watch.
On a brighter note, it was back to business for me, as my bet of the day - Jurgen Melzer - cruised past Ivo Karlovic by way of two tie breaks and has now won an astonishing 11 consecutive sets against the 6'10" Croatian! I also made a bit on Amer Delic, who was trading at in excess of 3.15 pre-match against Ivan Ljubicic, which was too good to miss and after an easy first set for the American, a simple lay-off was the order of the day, before Ljubicic came back to take the match.
All told, a very enjoyable first day at the Western & Southern Masters. Sadly there are no such straightforward opportunities today and I don't fancy anything enough for a bet of the day.
Robby Ginepri would be a lock to beat Jonas Bjorkman at 1.75 if he could find his old form, but he looks a million miles away at the moment.
Jarko Nieminen tempts me at 2.6 to take out Tommy Robredo, however the Spaniard is 4-0 on head to heads, so that puts me off.
Murray is a decent price at over 3.1 against a patchy Marcos Baghdatis, but I don't trust the Murray wrist enough to invest at the moment, so no wagers today.
The latter happened again yesterday in Cincinnati and Henman might as well start to consider a career next to Greg Rusedski in the commentary box, debating how close they came to that elusive grand slam title.
Yes, as predicted, Chela took care of our Tim in three sets, thus denying the possibility of a very poor advert for British tennis in round two. A way past his best Henman against an injured Andy Murray would quite literally have been painful to watch.
On a brighter note, it was back to business for me, as my bet of the day - Jurgen Melzer - cruised past Ivo Karlovic by way of two tie breaks and has now won an astonishing 11 consecutive sets against the 6'10" Croatian! I also made a bit on Amer Delic, who was trading at in excess of 3.15 pre-match against Ivan Ljubicic, which was too good to miss and after an easy first set for the American, a simple lay-off was the order of the day, before Ljubicic came back to take the match.
All told, a very enjoyable first day at the Western & Southern Masters. Sadly there are no such straightforward opportunities today and I don't fancy anything enough for a bet of the day.
Robby Ginepri would be a lock to beat Jonas Bjorkman at 1.75 if he could find his old form, but he looks a million miles away at the moment.
Jarko Nieminen tempts me at 2.6 to take out Tommy Robredo, however the Spaniard is 4-0 on head to heads, so that puts me off.
Murray is a decent price at over 3.1 against a patchy Marcos Baghdatis, but I don't trust the Murray wrist enough to invest at the moment, so no wagers today.
Sunday, 12 August 2007
Roger's Masters? Not this year! Montreal wrap and Cincinatti advice
Fantastic news in every sense! No, Big Brother hasn't been decommissioned, but rather Roger Federer has been - temporarily at least - and more importantly I've somehow managed to make a profit (albeit a small one) from a hitherto disastrous week in Montreal.
Yes, Sunday evening was pleasurable indeed, as Novak Djokovic took out Roger Federer in a final set tie-break and concomitantly almost doubled my bank. A touch ironic perhaps, as the young Serb had started my recent slide with a defeat in Umag and I'm pleased that I kept faith in his ability and had a few points on him at 14.0 before the Roddick match.
The final itself was a wonderful game, with Djokovic going a break up, only to be pegged back by Federer, who served for the set at 6-5 before Djokovic broke back and set up a breaker in which he prevailed by 7-2. Federer took the second set by 6-2, before service breaks were traded until we reached the inevitable final set shoot out. Djokovic went 6-1 up and held his nerve to earn himself a 7-6 (2), 2-6, 7-6 (2) victory and his second ATP Masters title of the year.
Federer is now without a tournament win from his last three hard court events and Djokovic has come in to 8.4 to win the US Open with Betfair. Fortunately for me, I have been telling anyone that would listen that the Serb was worth an ante post flutter and my 35.0 bet is looking a wise investment currently.
As for Federer, he will start the Western & Southern Masters today in Cincinatti at an easier to back 1.75 and appears to have the best of the draw in which to try and compensate for his recent lack of hard court success.
Speaking of which, I've been analysing the draw for the $1,000,000 'perfect bracket' competition, which is in operation for this tournament, but the chances of anyone predicting each and every match for the entire event correctly are surely zero. It has helped me to break down the draw though, so I am having a small wager of half a point or one point on Paul-Henri Mathieu at 150.0 and a couple of maybe's at decent prices.
Mathieu has been playing superbly well recently and 150.0 in my view is a very generous lay by someone on Betfair. The best price with the other layers is 80.0 and the way that the Frenchman has been playing of late makes my pick a bit of value.
I also think that James Blake is due a good week and I've managed to find myself a layer for Blake at 70.0, which again is almost twice the price he is trading at elsewhere. The injury that forced him out of Montreal wasn't a serious one and the New Yorker can go well here given his decent draw and an assumption of fitness.
Also worth a consideration are two mercurial talents who are fresh and ready to go this week in Fernando Gonzalez and Richard Gasquet. I've had half a point on the Chilean at 70.0 to overcome his recent poor form and the same goes for Gasquet who owes me a performance after his match point capitulation to Verdasco last week.
All of this may be futile of course, as Federer will be gunning to make up for his Montreal defeat and his defeat here last year to Andy Murray, who Federer may face again in this year's last 32. Murray, however has a tough first round against Marcos Baghdatis and the Cypriot will start favourite, given the Scot's dodgy wrist.
As far as today's first round matches are concerned, there may be a little bit of value to be had by backing Jurgen Melzer to beat Ivo Karlovic at the current odds of 2.5. The Austrian holds a career 4-0 record over the giant Croatian and has won each of the nine sets that the two have played, including at this years Australian Open, so Melzer clearly has a handle on that huge serve of Karlovic's. A two point win would be todays bet of the day and it could also be worth chancing Amer Delic to continue Ivan Ljubicic's poor run of form at the current odds of 2.75 in what will probably be a battle of the serves.
Odds-on backers will be looking at Chela to beat Henman as the lock of the day at around 1.5 and even given Chela's average run of form, he will surely be too good for an on the slide Henman.
Yes, Sunday evening was pleasurable indeed, as Novak Djokovic took out Roger Federer in a final set tie-break and concomitantly almost doubled my bank. A touch ironic perhaps, as the young Serb had started my recent slide with a defeat in Umag and I'm pleased that I kept faith in his ability and had a few points on him at 14.0 before the Roddick match.
The final itself was a wonderful game, with Djokovic going a break up, only to be pegged back by Federer, who served for the set at 6-5 before Djokovic broke back and set up a breaker in which he prevailed by 7-2. Federer took the second set by 6-2, before service breaks were traded until we reached the inevitable final set shoot out. Djokovic went 6-1 up and held his nerve to earn himself a 7-6 (2), 2-6, 7-6 (2) victory and his second ATP Masters title of the year.
Federer is now without a tournament win from his last three hard court events and Djokovic has come in to 8.4 to win the US Open with Betfair. Fortunately for me, I have been telling anyone that would listen that the Serb was worth an ante post flutter and my 35.0 bet is looking a wise investment currently.
As for Federer, he will start the Western & Southern Masters today in Cincinatti at an easier to back 1.75 and appears to have the best of the draw in which to try and compensate for his recent lack of hard court success.
Speaking of which, I've been analysing the draw for the $1,000,000 'perfect bracket' competition, which is in operation for this tournament, but the chances of anyone predicting each and every match for the entire event correctly are surely zero. It has helped me to break down the draw though, so I am having a small wager of half a point or one point on Paul-Henri Mathieu at 150.0 and a couple of maybe's at decent prices.
Mathieu has been playing superbly well recently and 150.0 in my view is a very generous lay by someone on Betfair. The best price with the other layers is 80.0 and the way that the Frenchman has been playing of late makes my pick a bit of value.
I also think that James Blake is due a good week and I've managed to find myself a layer for Blake at 70.0, which again is almost twice the price he is trading at elsewhere. The injury that forced him out of Montreal wasn't a serious one and the New Yorker can go well here given his decent draw and an assumption of fitness.
Also worth a consideration are two mercurial talents who are fresh and ready to go this week in Fernando Gonzalez and Richard Gasquet. I've had half a point on the Chilean at 70.0 to overcome his recent poor form and the same goes for Gasquet who owes me a performance after his match point capitulation to Verdasco last week.
All of this may be futile of course, as Federer will be gunning to make up for his Montreal defeat and his defeat here last year to Andy Murray, who Federer may face again in this year's last 32. Murray, however has a tough first round against Marcos Baghdatis and the Cypriot will start favourite, given the Scot's dodgy wrist.
As far as today's first round matches are concerned, there may be a little bit of value to be had by backing Jurgen Melzer to beat Ivo Karlovic at the current odds of 2.5. The Austrian holds a career 4-0 record over the giant Croatian and has won each of the nine sets that the two have played, including at this years Australian Open, so Melzer clearly has a handle on that huge serve of Karlovic's. A two point win would be todays bet of the day and it could also be worth chancing Amer Delic to continue Ivan Ljubicic's poor run of form at the current odds of 2.75 in what will probably be a battle of the serves.
Odds-on backers will be looking at Chela to beat Henman as the lock of the day at around 1.5 and even given Chela's average run of form, he will surely be too good for an on the slide Henman.
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