Keep your eye on the ball is a phrase that is very much overused in gym classes and sports training grounds worldwide and a fundamental rule of tennis betting. Sadly, due to a bizarre combination of Alan Yentob, the BBC TV Studios car park, a troupe of dancing girls, Jimmy Saville, a horse hospital and some of London's finest hostelries, I was off duty when my banker of the week, Novak Djokovic managed to lose to a qualifier in the second round in Umag.
This lack of concentration has contributed to a severe dent being made in the Calvert funds and combined with defeats for Werner Escahuer, Olivier Patience and Robby Ginepri, has left me with only Potito Starace batting for me this week. I knew the time was up on the Olivier Patience punt when my old mate Derek McGovern of The Mirror tipped Patience as his bet of the day to beat Igor Andreev. Needless to say, Andreev won in straight sets, but what can you expect from the man who tipped Djokovic to beat Nadal in the Wimbledon semi's the day after a five hour five setter. Hope you didn't lose too much on that one Del.
With my strategy for the week in tatters, it was with more than a touch of frustration and with the air of a condemned man that I logged on to the match scoreboard of Starace v Florian Mayer in Kitzbuhel to check on my man's progress.
Sure enough, Starace managed to claim just three points on the German's serve in a first set which was lost 6-4 and when Mayer served for the match at 6-5 and 40-15 in the second set, the fat lady was well and truly about to crank up her vocal chords.
But no, the battling Italian saved the day with the help of a timely choke from the German and we were into a tie-break, which Starace won by seven points to nil. Mayer had lost it big time from the brink of victory and a decider got under way with an immediate break of serve in the favour of my man. Of course, Starace was himself broken in the next game, but broke straight back and went on to take the match 6-2 and now faces a quarter final match up against fellow countryman Andreas Seppi. Disaster averted by the skin of my teeth and if Starace can take care of Seppi, he has a great chance of reaching the final, as the bottom quarter contains, Nicolas Lapentti, Agustin Calleri and Diego Hartfield, none of whom should hold any fears for my bet, but in reality will probably mean Seppi will turn him over in straight sets.
Elsewhere, the day became steadily worse, as I lost a few trades and was guilty of having a couple of unwise punts in an effort to claw some of the Djokovic cash back and ended up very much down on the day.
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