Strawberries and cream. Manicured grass courts. Tennis whites. Pimms. Mediocre performances from mediocre British players. Yes, there’s a lot of reasons to like Wimbledon and I haven’t even mentioned yet the myriad of betting opportunities. With 254 matches played in the Men’s and Women’s singles events, surely it can’t be that hard to turn a profit from a few wise spread bets…?
Well, that’s the theory at least. For as we rejoin The Championships halfway through, it has been something of a struggle betting-wise. Things weren’t helped by a self-imposed handicap before the tournament had even begun: I foolishly backed Rafael Nadal to win the tournament with one of the fixed odds firms that were not offering ‘non-runner, no bet’. Even by recent standards, to be in deficit before the tournament had actually begun was particularly impressive.
Since the tennis actually started, my tournament strategy has consisted of three major tenets:
1) Get with Juan Martin Del Potro
2) Get with Juan Carlos Ferrero (pictured above)
3) Get against Ivo Karlovic
I’d like to think there was sound reasoning behind all of these, but they have produced mixed results. Ferrero’s recent resurgence has come as little surprise to his most loyal fans (i.e. me) who never lost faith in the former French Open Champion and World Number 1. This grass-court season, Ferrero has lent further credence to his own theory that fast courts now represent the former clay-court specialist’s best chance of success.
So far, he has recorded victories over Youzhny, Santoro and, most recently, Fernando Gonzalez in a phenomenal five-set contest full of attacking brim and sensational shot-making. Scheduled to face Gilles Simon in the 4th round, Ferrero’s ‘so-far’ currently stands at 5 on the tournament outright index, ensuring that those of us who bought him at 2.5 pre-tournament will at the very least double our money.
(FYI, the outright index makes up: 60 to the tournament winner, 40 to the losing finalist, 20 to the semi-finalists, 10 to the quarter-finalists and 5 for making the last 16)
King Juan Carlos has represented all that’s good about my Wimbledon so far. Unfortunately, he’s been pretty much my only success story. Most disastrous was my brief flirtation with the fifth-seeded Juan Martin Del Potro. Doubts had been raised pre-tournament concerning the French Open semi-finalist’s lack of experience on grass and, in particular, how the 6’6” giant would cope with the skidding, low bounce of the balls.
A first round 6-3 6-1 6-2 demolition of last year’s quarter-finalist Arnaud Clement was enough to persuade me that these fears were unfounded and so, fatefully, I piled into the Argentine, buying him on the outright index at 13. To say I didn’t get a run for my money would be an understatement; Del Potro lasted just three further sets in the tournament, all won by his second round opponent, Lleyton Hewitt. While the tennis world marvelled at the class demonstrated by the 2002 Wimbledon Champion – who looked far more at home on the grass of SW19 than his gangly opponent – I was left to come to terms with a 13 point loss.
Talking of big men looking ill at ease at Wimbledon, the 6’10” Croat Ivo Karlovic has struggled more than most in recent years. Despite regularly performing well at Queen’s and Nottingham in the lead-up to Wimbledon, he had suffered four straight first round defeats at the All England Club, most of which were against unheralded opponents. With such a record, the chance to sell his 25:0 at 21.5 against the Slovak Lukas Lacko was too good to turn down.
Karlovic promptly won in straight sets meaning another losing bet for me. Undeterred. I sold his 25:0 again in the next round, this time against Steve Darcis, a quarter-finalist at Queen’s. Karlovic again won in three. Sensing a pattern, I dodged his third round match against Jo Wilfried Tsonga, in which Karlovic’s unplayable, unbreakable serve was the key to another victory. Old habits die hard however and I’m already lining up a way to get against Dr Ivo in his fourth round clash with Fernando Verdasco – a match, which, amazingly to my eyes at least, the Croat is set to go off favourite.
So that’s the week that was for me at Wimbledon. Pretty disastrous so far, but at least – unlike every Brit bar Andy Murray – I’m still in the game, with a chance to turn things around. What price Juan Carlos Ferrero 2009 Wimbledon Champion?
JW
Comments