Washington & Poland - Day 1

Well, it appears that within the space of a few days I have gone from being the 'Goldenballs' of tennis betting to a sort of latter day King Midas in reverse. Everything I touch at the moment is turning brown and I'm having one of those nightmare losing streaks, where every decision is the wrong one and I need to turn the corner asap.

Every punter is familiar with great runs, where your 33-1's and 50-1's are coming in and you can see opportunities almost before they arrive, however you know you're only one bad bet away from going in the other direction and it's very difficult to find your way out. At least I'm not the only one; the RP tipster is having an absolute shocker, tipping Davydenko last week (lost in the first round), Robredo also last week (lost in the quarters) and Almagro this week (lost in the first round in Poland today). Del McGovern at the Mirror is faring just as badly, with just two winning tennis match bets from the last seven and a three match losing streak currently.

I dread the post Wimbledon month, as it really is just dodgy clay courters going through the motions and top stars honing their hard court games for the Masters Series and US Open and it's tough to tell who's trying and who isn't and strange results ensue. Therefore I have been finding other bets to top up my profit and having been on numerous cricket tours with England I am clued up enough to bet on it on occasion.

Sadly, England's pathetic collapse in the test today after Vaughan had batted them almost to safety has cost me yet more profit and I am having to be watchful of my bets this week.

My tentative tips for Poland started well today, with Jose Acasuso winning easily against Werner Eschauer and Igor Andreev was a set up against Nicolas Lapentti. Acasuso has a good record here, winning once and a finalist on another occasion, so I'm hopeful of a decent run, however to say he's unreliable is a gross understatement.

Time to get back to betting basics and back on the winning trail tomorrow..