Wednesday 30 June 2010

Extra

£15 on tsonga at 4.4 to beat murray
Potential Proft £51

£32 on Tsonga +5.5 games at 1.8
Potential Profit £25.60

£30 on Over 39.5 Games at 1.82
Potential Profit £24.60

Being British has led to a false price vs the capable tsonga. It will be tighter than prices suggest in my opinion. tsonga has won their only gs meeting in 08 and is a big game performer. Murray will have some nervous moments and this game has much more legs than prices suggest. I will take tsonga handicap, tsonga to win match and overs game. Murray will have to have a good serve % as it will be harder to break jo and murray needs to be in control of points. If murray lets his % drop below 50% he could be in trouble given tsonga's aggressive nature and big serve.

Wednesday's Bets

£25 on Lu +5.5 Games vs Djokovic at 2.16
Although i doubt lu has the mentality to beat djoker after beating roddick, i think he has a good chance today. He showed great mental strength and patience to beat roddick, waiting his time before breaking him in the final game of the match for the first time. Lu served great against roddick, holding his serev the whole match after being broken once in the first set. I believe joker will nget more returns into play as roddicks returning was shocking. Despite this i fancy lu to keep it tight with his serve firing and i will take him with the handicap.
Potential Profit £30
Also £8 on lu at 6 to win £40

£30 on berdych +5.5 at 1.84
Berdych knows to do well in this match he must serve big as it will be hard to break the federer serve. Berdych has proved this year his greater resolve and beat fed in a tight game so there is less of a sense of aura playing fed as that game went to the wire and berdy came through. He will look to stay with fed and i will take him with the games as i believe he has a good chance today.
Potential Profit £25.20

£35 on tie break in berdych game at 1.6
Similar to above berdych knows he must serve huge to win this match. He has had tbs in 3 of his four wimb games so i think there is a little value here. Playing big servers at wimb fed is usually content enough with tbs and has shown a great winning record in them over past years-look to his victories over roddick and ivo karlovic last year and vs soderling also. Further, there has been a tb the last 5 times they have played with 7 in total in those games.
Potential Profit £21
£12 on berdych at 5 to win £48 also

Monday 28 June 2010

Monday's Bets

£48 on Hewitt to beat Djokovic at 2.16
Hewitt the form player with the greater grass record agains djokovic who hasn't had the best of luck here in recent years with defeats against veterans haas and safin. Hewitt comes in on great form having won at halle, beating fed in the final. He usually only gets defeated by the best on grass, rarely losing to players he shouldn't. The form djoker is in is a big concern for him and i fancy hewitt to edge through. The match is played in the middle of the day and the heat should favour hewitt as djoker has struggled with heat in the past. Ill take the experienced grinder to edge through in what will be a tight match.
Potential Profit £55.68

Saturday 26 June 2010

Extra

£20 on nadal at 1.86 at 2-1 to petz
Still time for nadal in a very close game. Must step forward a bit more and try to see it through.
Potential Profit £16

Nadal Bet

£120 on nadal at 1.2 at 1-1 3-3 30-15 to petz
Nadal should have too much in the end. Seems to be finding his game and his motivation is unquestionable.
Potential Profit £24

Chardy Update

Match just finished and another great choke from a player i have backed. Chardy leading 5-3 in the final set and 5*-4 15-0 and somehow found a way to lose. Good back at the price of 8.8 but i should have layed it off. However, it must also be noted that ferrer had a 2-0 4-2 lead and lost four straight games. This shows how frustrating tennis can be to bet on as players are choking big leads, especially any player i back lately.

However for the sake of the thread it is very hard to be able to lay a player in play and also record your actions here. For the sake of the thread and anyone following, i want to record all my bets when i make them so i can't be accussed of cheating or aftertiming. If anyone can think of a solution then that would be great. Was thinking of putting a lay in to be matched at a certain price (very low, below 1.2 in-play on any player i think has the capacity to choke -although it could be said every player is capable of a choke). Meffert, melzer and chardy are all players with question marks over the mental aspects in the past. Maybe i should just stick to pre-match bets as was intended at the start of this and any chokes will have to be taken on the chin.

Any insights or thoughts greatly appreciated.

Extra Bet

£10 on Chardy at 8.8 at 1-0 1-1* to ferrer
Long way to go in match and may look to trade out at some stage depending how the match is going. Just served out brilliantly from 0-40 with huge strokes and hopefully has momentum to kick on.
Potential Profit £78

Saturday's Bets

£40 on malisse to beat querrey at 3.5

Malisse is currently going through somewhat of a renaissance in his career. Approaching his 30th birthday, he has surely not got much time left to have a good grand slam run and should be ciewing this as one of his last chances. He never really pushed on from his semi final effort here in 2002, where he was beat in five sets in a titanic struggle by nalbandian.

The fact he never went higher than 19 (which he achieved shortly after that performance) highlights the underachievement and some of his performances in following years highlight that he perhaps didn't get over that dissappointment. The defeat the following year at wimbledon in rd 1 to saulnier in straight sets and great britains arvind parmer at nott the following year highlight how great he fell. In the last year he has found some of that grass form and has found confidence which comes from winning games. He is 8-2 this year on grass this year, reaching the qf at queens (losing to querrey) and sf in holland.

Today malisse faces querrey, the champion of Queens and the player who ended his good run there. However, despite this victory, i believe the bookies have went a little overboard with their prices, as he did not have to beat a player ranked under 70 in the rankings, showing the ease of his draw. Also, despite his size, decent serve and some decent grass performances of late, i am not convinced on him on grass as his movement on it is still very suspect and his net game still needs attention. The more games he plays the better he should get, but with only 28 games on lawns he is still relatively inexperienced.

Further, he has commented on troubles with the the transition form queens to wimbledon as the courts are playing slightly differently, with different bounces and speeds. All this could be seen in his stuttering defeat of the limited dodig, and if he hadn't choked in the 4th set tb we would have seen a five setter in a game querrey really should have romped.

Lastly, queerey has not got the best record at grand slams with a 44% record overall, and his lone last 16 appearance at US 2008 his best performance to date. He has suffered some poor defeats, few worse than this year in the first rd as a seed in both aus and french to schuettler and genepri repectively. Further, he has lost his two five setters to date and all this shows that he is vulnerable over 5 set games and his inexperience going the distance may tell. Malisse on the other hand is over 60% at GS level witha 10-11 record on games that go the distance of five sets. This better record and greater experience will hopefully see him over the line in a tight match, much tighter than odds may suggest.

Potential Profit £100

Any comments or reasoning greatly appreciated!

Back to it!

Following a tough last few games i decided to completely take a break and return after having a bad run, with luck clearly against me. Meffert losing from a set and a break up, mahut losing from winning the first set (after watching him in queens and seeing how fresh he looked after over 100 games in 5th set it is unbelievable how tired he looked against cilic after that first set in queens) and lastly melzer losing in a 3rd set tb from a break and a set up against an out of form zverev. I have had a gap of two weeks which i feel is sufficient and am returning now for what is left of wimbledon.

Having watched some of the tournament i must say it has made for some compelling viewing. It started with fed the first day in what would have been one of the biggest shocks of all time, and in my opinion the entertainment has not let up since.

The bank lies at a measly £820 and I will continue as before as i believe it is early days and my luck will turn. Good luck to all.

Wednesday 9 June 2010

Thursday's Bet

£100 on melzer at 1.48

Very wary backing against the home dog, after previous disappointments on the first day, especially against a player with debatable motivation following a great performance at rg, making the semi-final. Zverev has had a terrible season (retiring twice in a row before rg), especially since marseille and will be glad to be on the faster surfaces again.

Looking to the match-up, first up two big servers with quite similar games, who like net-rushing are up against each other. Zverev's game is well suited to grass with his serve and volley game. This exactly the match up melzer loves. He has a great record against big servers (appart from roddick) mainly from keeping returns very deep, putting much pressure on the servers. Further melzer likes a target which is perfect for this match.

Also, zverev seems to struggle against big servers shown by a 35% career record accoring to tennisinsight losing 11 of last 12, with only 1 of last 10 games against a top 70 player. Lastly zverev has a terrible record against lefties with a 38% career record, losing the last 7 with all players outside top 50 and and four 100 or higher. Melzer on the other hand has a decent record vs lefties mirroring his career record against all players.

All in all it points to a melzer victory if he is up for it. I will take the gamble on his state of mind.

Potential Profit £48

Last Today Surely!

£16.5. on brown in play vs istoman at *5-6 in play at 3.17 av
Potential Profit almost £36

**Extra lay at 1.18 for £16 Profit at istoman 1-0

Only won tb 9-7 and surely someone as mentally questionable as istoman is a little low at current quotes given Brown on serve

Extras

£48 on mahut at 2.91 av
Mahut has come through the qualies and has played 4 matches. Cilic on the other hand is vulnerable in his first grass game this season and is vulnerable as he was last year against a big server like mahut on his return as it will be hard to find a rythm and great pressure will be put on his serve, even if mahut was broke a few times in rd 1 and qualies.
Potential Proft £91.68

£120 on Fish at 1.33

Fish is an experienced pro coming to the end of his long career. Like hewitt he today faces an up and coming player in santiago giraldo. Giraldo, like de bakker is inexperienced on grass 5-6 in his 11 matches with his wins coming in challengers or qualies before overcoming korolev in rd 1. This shows his inexperience in comparison to fish's 63% record on grass with an exceptoinally good record at queens, showed by victories over lopez and llodra here last year, both competent grass players. Further, giraldo will have to be strong on serve today as it will be hard to break fish and giraldo hasn't the best record vs strong servers. I'll take fish even at the short price, given his extra experience and doubts over giraldo's grass game.

Potential Profit £39.60

£28 on petz at 1.94 av at 2-1* and 4-3*

Germans have been great this week in halle and i see this continuing with petz who has been good in germany this year with a good performance in munich. He did well beating baggy and i see him continuing this against troicki, who still doesn't convince me, but for reduced stakes.

Potential Profit £26.32

Tuesday 8 June 2010

Wednesday's Bets

£130 on Hewitt at 1.4
This is my big bet for tomorrow like mahut, but im not as confident as i was on that, given de bakker's great year as is evident with the reduced stake.
Here, we have a fading great against a player with much potential. However, the thing is hewitt loves this period of the year. He has a 81% career record on grass, which shows his strength on the stuff. Further since the grass season in 06 at queens which he won, only baggy, tsonga, roddick, novak and federer have beat him on grass, showing that it takes the top players to beat him (although tsonga defeat in 2 tbs came before he broke through).
De bakker struggles on faster surfaces as he is rushed more on his strokes as he prefers more time on his longer groundstrokes. Further he has only played 8 games on grass(4-4) with his non qf wins coming vs phau, who is especially awful on grass, at ned last year and bopanna here in rd1. This highlights his inexperience on the surface.
Hewitt strugles against power games on quicker surfaces but although de bakker possesses a decent serve, he does not have the capacity to blast him off court so there is nothing in the match up for him to fear. I will give hewitt the go as it should take a player more advanced to take the aussie out.
Potential Profit £48

£48 on mefferet at 2.52
I was impressed with the german the other day. His huge serve made up fo some glaring deficincies elsewhere. He served out many times from 0-30, never dropping his serve once. Lacko is still very inexperienced and i believe this may tell tomorrow as he will need patience and mental resolve with so few chances on serve. The german has had his greatest career result and has great momentum and in front of his home fans with his serve on this surface i will give him a great chance. I don't believe lacko's game matches great against big servers and this is a tough test for him and i believe his lack of know how may prove his downfall
Potential Profit £72.96

Will have another look in the morning as not all prices are upyet. Had considered llodra but at 1.4 on betfair against someone with a record like levine's on grass i quickly passed.

Monday 7 June 2010

Tuesday's Bet

£200 on mahut at 1.4Bold
After being burnt on backing against the home dogs in halle, ill put all my money on one player tomorrow. This is mahut who lives for this period of the year. He had a good queens last year where he beat cilic before being taking out by dr ivo.

Further, he comes into this tourni on good form. He won his first french open match in rd 1 before pushing melzer to four sets, losing a tb at 1-1. He then qualified for queens and the fact he has three games under his belt witha day break means he comes into the match in perfect nick.

Lu on the other hand hasnt played since his rd1 defeat to ljubicic. He has a terrible 38% career record on grass with most his wins coming some time ago. He is 1-9 in last 10 with his only win on grass since nottinham 2006 coming against colin fleming in three at eastbourne last year. Mahut on the other hand is 64% on grass showing the real difference between the two.

Lastly lu struggles against powerful servers. This is highlighted by tennisinsights stats of 44% against big servers (although some of the players there are debatable). He has a losing h2h of 3-0 vs karlovic, roddick and more importantly a 4-0 losing h2h vs mahut with the most recent victory coming this year in johannasberg. Lastly to beat mahut he will have to hold serve all day and i am not sure this is possible. A very confident call.

Potential Profit £80

Monday's Bets

£44 on sela at 1.67
Sela had a good grass campaign last year, losing in three in rd 1 at halle last year, before making the qtrs in in Holland and the 4th at wimbledon to novak. He has had a poor campaign to date and has surely been looking forward to the grass season as it seems to suit his game as he is very accomplished at net. He has no points to defend from last year here so it is his best chance to get up the rankings as he will have to do well in the coming weeks to defend last years points. Guccione has a poor career record on grass with nearly all his 25 wins coming in qualies and ch level. Further he is 2-8 in last 10 and his only wins on grass since wimb 2007 have come against bogdanovic, lu and Amritaj showing his troubles. Ill take sela to continue his grass form.
Potential Profit £29.48

£68 on Baghdatis at 1.43
Baggy has a great record on grass. Given his form on clay which is meant to be his worst surface comfortably we can see what form he is hitting. Petz with his slice bh is decent on grass but unspectacular and i fancy baggy to hit through him today even in front of his home fans.
Potential Profit £29.24

£44 on muller at 1.62
Muller has been quite impressive since his return from injury. He has played mainly on the challenger tour and seems to be getting his confidence back. He will be hard to break today and i fancy his to get past his innexperienced opponent in what will be a tight match.
Potential Profit £27.52

£200 on Fish at 1.18
Not much to say. Fish is experienced and is usually consistent on grass. Devvarman does not possess a serve of any difficulty and i think fish should get it done in two.
Potential Profit £36

Extra £10 on baker tro beat istoman at 4.8

Istoman poor record on grass and ill have a little on the home dog.

Potential Profit £38

Monday's Bets

£200 on ferrero at 1.15
Ferrero had a great grass campaign last year making his way to queens sf and wimbledon qf beating gonzo and simon at wimbledon. Grass has become one of his favourite surfaces in recent years after once being the king of clay. He is getting towards the end of his career and even at this price i will take him against the german journeyman, who has little record on grass as well as any other surface.
Potential Profit £30
More bets to follow

Sunday 6 June 2010

Sunday's extra

Lay nadal 3-0 at 1.55 at 1-0 3*-2 in sets for £23.50 Liability
Possible Profit £25

Sunday's Bets

£28 on tie break at 1.84
Soderling has to serve big. Nadal has needed tie breaks in both his last matches. In meeting last year there was two tbs and i believe the price should be below 1.8.
Potential Profit £23.52

£12 on sod to beat nadal at 4.3
Sod has the game that troubles nadal. He hits the fh so big that it goes through clay. Nadal has struggled badly against power games losing to berdych twice before while losing to del potro twice, sod twice and cilic in last year. The price should be a little shorter and i will give sod a go at prices.
Potential Profit £39.60

Bank now back to £1000

Friday 4 June 2010

Friday's Bets

Sorry, i have been busy lately and have missed the tennis the last few days. I see joker was beat at big odds which could have been predicted given his poor game lately, his flaky mentality and the way melzer has been playing lately. Further soderling took federer apart which shouldn't be a huge surprise but it was a game in past years which he would have won. I believe there is not the same fear factor in playing fed now. He won many games in past years by other p=layers outplaying himbut having a much inferior mental game. Essentially fed is no longer viewed as the impossible obstacle by many of his competitors.

£16 on berdych to beat soderling
This is a game of the two form players this week. They have only dropped two sets between them, sod vs montanes and fed, showing the runs they have had. While i believe sod has the greater experience he is rightly fav i thought prices would be much closer. However, i believe following the defeat of fed we are gettiing a poor price on sod as i was expecting something around 1.65-1.7. They have played numerous times before with sod marginally ahead, with 1-1 on clay and berdy winning 6-2 6-2 in last game in miami. Berdy is having a real breakthrough and i have a feeling this might continue today. Berdy with small stakes in what will be a great match to watch with two similar power games going at it. Justy hope he doesn't freeze as if sod gets ahead, he's become a good frontrunner and could easily win in three.
Potential Profit £30.72