Wimbledon Day 3

Just to continue my series of tennis players looking ridiculous….

I suppose Sharapova’s defeat was the day’s headline. Pity it blew away a potential third round clash with Petrova, I was looking forward to that one. Azarenka rather demolished my suggestion that she was priced too short with a double bagel against the unfortunate Romanian, Olaru. Not too many other surprises in the women’s draw today, the bottom half of the third round is looking quite interesting, although I’d be surprised if it didn’t end with a Dementieva / Serena semi.

In the men’s event, nothing happened today that would worry Federer about his half of the draw. Again, I’m drawn to a couple of good third round clashes – Djokovic v Fish, and Karlovic v Tsonga. I also fancy Robin Soderling’s chances after Nicolas Almagro had another five set win in hot conditions.

Michael Llodra’s tournament came to an unfortunate and painful end, see his accident here - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/8117785.stm ( plus some ‘hilarious’ Haas v ballboy tennis ). Taylor Dent went down in five sets after trading at 1.16 pre-match, and Tommy Robredo threatened to do the same.

Quieter day for my betting today. Contrary to my idea that an earlier work finish would give me more trading opportunities, I couldn’t find many games of interest upon my return. Made a little on Andreev and Soderling to go with my overnight bet on Djokovic, but I seem to be very wary of the women’s games at the moment, and I’ve also noticed that watching tennis on the TV is of no help to me whatsoever. Many traders prefer to concentrate on televised games, but I suppose I’m more used to concentrating on a scoreboard and Betfair screen.

Pleased with the steady week so far. If I can pick off a couple of in-play opportunities tomorrow evening, I’ll be well set to use any time I have over the weekend to move the week from ‘steady’ to ‘profitable’ ( I’m away on Friday ).

I’ll only be putting one bet in place during the day – Del Potro @ 1.43. It’s not difficult to find winners ( Hanescu, Lisicki, Stosur, Simon and Wozniaki all stand out ), but the odds are prohibitive. I think Baltacha has a good chance, but won’t be putting my hard-earned money on it.