Thursday, 31 January 2008

Week 2 + Australian Open

Oooopssss!!!

OK, so I forgot to post anything the last few weeks. Let me break it down quickly....

Week 2 was boring. I couldn't be bothered staying up all night for the little bit of action so just had some punts and traded the first matches on in Auckland. Missed a couple of big trades by a couple of ticks - being greedy!! - which was frustrating but the punts did OK so quite happy with the week.

For the Aussie Open I was staying up through most nights and going to bed around midday after the night session finished. I just got completely knackered and brain functions were pretty limited :).

I had quite a few disappointments during the tournament, backed a lot of dogs who took it to a 5th set then lost (off the top of my head remember Safin, Gremelmayr, Haase, Koubek). The one that really turned it around for me was Hewitt against Baghdatis but that should never have gone to 5!!

Had a nice day with Cilic beating Gonzalez and Ferrero beating Nalbandian very comfortably. Also played a lot of handicaps and over/under total games which surprisingly went pretty well. Sure a couple of bookmakers will be keeping an eye on my during the next slam with these markets :).

Had a really nice end to the tournament. Backed Djokovic against Federer pretty big which was extra sweet as I love beating Federer. Backed the Bondarenko babes in the final of the ladies doubles which was also very enjoyable.

Also need to talk about Tsonga. WOW!!! How good was this guy? Cost me a lot of money as I backed Gasquet, Youzhny (big) and Nadal against him and Tsonga crushed them all. Backed Tsonga to win the 1st set in the final which worked out well but still lost out on him during the tournament.

Obviously I haven't mentioned everything, I've tried to forget most of the losses! Ended up making a decent profit, but had a few bumpy days along the way.

Happy with the way this year has gone so far, and I've got a huge plan ready for the French/Wimbledon part of the year. So anyone out there, please keep reading!!!!!

Sunday, 6 January 2008

Week 1 - Sunday

That went well! Youzhny wins 6-0 6-1 against a clearly tired Nadal and that brings the end of a good week. Kept the stakes small this week, satisfied with a profit, and looking forward to bigger and better things in the forthcoming weeks!

See you next week!

Saturday, 5 January 2008

Week 1 - Saturday

Interesting day today!

Backed Azarenka in the final @ 2 to beat Li, she won the first set then had some injury issues and lost in 3 sets. I was asleep so couldn't do anything about it! Backed Llodra who won comfortably and Tsonga, who was pathetic and lost really tamely!

Then the interesting bit was this afternoon, I got in after playing tennis and saw Nadal and Moya going into a third set. Wow! Didn't quite expect that, so started watching a bit. At 2-2 Nadal was serving, 0-15 and the price was 1.54. Thought he was playing well so had a piece of that. Then he gets broken and Moya is around 1.35-1.40 which was a disaster. Didn't want to take the big losses so let it ride, Moya got to 5-3 up but back came Nadal. He broke back to get to 5-5 then won the breaker in a 4 hour war. Vamos Nadal!

Would have been another bad day if he'd lost, but turned out OK. Tomorrow only Nadal game interests me, trying to make this a positive week, starting off with a decent lay of Nadal @ 1.49.

Friday, 4 January 2008

Week 1 - Friday

Awful Friday!!!! Backed Li @ 2.37 against Schnyder who won after a battle so that was a great start. Then backed Ljubicic because of the price move overnight and he was pathetic. Back Malisse and Haase in Chennai and was annoyed when the matches got delayed and I couldn't watch the scoreboard. Both lost. Also layed Murray just before the start of the match as his price came in too much, started perfectly with Davydenko breaking in the first game where I should have covered as Murray was a huge price @ 2.4! But I didn't, was too greedy and payed for it.

Had been a great week before today, and I plan on getting it back over the weekend before really hitting the markets hard next week.

Thursday, 3 January 2008

Week 1 - Thursday - Results & Announcement

Good day today, went 2-1 on the selections posted. Also backed Cilic @ 2.26 and Ljubicic @ 1.56 both of whom won. Quite pleased with the way things have gone so far, whatever happens in the rest of the week I think I've avoided my usual "Week 1 disaster".


Announcement: I'm new to blogging, and when I started this I wasn't sure what I was going to put in it. Thus, I've started putting analysis of matches in. This was not my intention, and I'm going to stop doing it. If you want to see my analysis of matches then it will be posted at www.punterslounge.com/forum and http://www.tennisbetting.proboards57.com/index.cgi . I am going to start posting screenshot of Betfair screens showing P/L and great/disasterous trades that I've made. I want to keep this blog for summary of how things are going, nice/awful results and stories.

Anyone out there, hope you're enjoying reading this!!!

Wednesday, 2 January 2008

Week 1 - Thursday - Early thoughts

Paszek @ 2.44 v Kirilenko. Really like Paszek in this one. She has much more potential and a much greater optimul level. I think this match up will be good for her and she can really dominate most of the rallies. Kirilenko improved quite a bit last year, and she's the more consistant performer, but I still think Paszek is worth a shot at this price.

Zverev @ 1.8 v Spadea. Zverev finished last year excellently winning the challenger in Dnrpropetrovsk beating Becker, Canas and Tursunov which must have been one of the toughest challengers of the year. He's 20 and has a lot of potential - as well as a nice lefty serve. He got a solid win in the first round and I make him a decent favourite here. Spadea struggles to get wins on the tour nowadays (2-5 after US Open last year) and a win over Grosjean doesn't say much given the decline he showed last year. For me Zverev can have a good year and get into the top 50 at least, and he should be around 1.5.

Peer @ 2.1 Coral v Safina. Just like the price here. Both have struggled a bit so far but I rate Peer as a much better player on hard courts. Hard to account for form here so I'm going on a gut feeling. Safina has a great record here, winning last year, beating Peer in the semis, but Peer was a tie break away from winning in straght sets. That made the H2H 3-0 to Safina, but the first two were when Peer was much more of an unknown.
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Week 1 - Wednesday

Not bad today, started well laying Guccione after he took the first set @ 1.5 for a decent win. Then backed Ljubicic and Tursunov, just for there opponents to withdraw. Layed Calleri @ 1.12 when he was a set up and Davydenko @ 1.17 just before the match started but didn't trade out and took a couple of losses.

Really frustrating day, hope for better tomorrow.

Tuesday, 1 January 2008

Week 1 - Tuesday - Results

Schuettler got the job done after a sluggish start. Also had a bit of action with Calleri after he took the lead early which was successful. All in all a good day. Still keeping the stakes small and preparing for forthcoming weeks.

Week 1 - Tuesday

I'm just playing around with little stakes this week, slowly getting back into it . Had a little lay of Lee yesterday @ 1.13 when he was 4-1 up, could have taken the profit when Mirnyi broke back to 4-3 but decided to wait till the end of the first set. Obviously didn't work out too well, and took a small loss.

Going to have a little nibble today, this time taking something pre match. Lay Pavel @ 1.8 against Schuettler. Really can't make Pavel the fav, and at worst call this 50/50. Schuettler finished off last year well, having a solid run in Asia and finishing off winning a challenger in Kuala Lumpar comfortably. I've heard he's been training hard over the winter, and has a decent record in this tournament. He's asked for a wildcard here, and I normally find those guys motivated (didn't work with Mirnyi yesterday). Pavel keeps plying decent stuff on the circuit, and ended last season with lower back problems in mid November so not sure about his prep work for the new season. Going to take Schuettler pre match and see how it develops, might lay off if the first set goes well.