Bobby Sod may have been wiped out by Nadal but my 50/1 pick Berdych (made on June 4) has knocked out Federer in four sets. Federer will not appear in the final for the first time since 2002. Berdych is now 11/2 to lift the title. We invested three points each way at 50/1 so we would pick up 78pts if he beats Djoko in the semi (1/2 the odds) and a further 153pts if he wins the tournament.
Bookmakers make Djoko very slight favourite to beat Berdych in the semi. He leads Berdych 2-0 in the H2H too. We need to protect our investment with a hedge on Djoko. I think we will get evens as the money looks like it might move slightly towards the Czech in the next 24 hours.
I'll have another look at the market tomorrow and decide how we should bet.
What a difference a couple of days has made to our Wimbledon portfolio! Our outright ladies selections are all out ( Aza, Pova and Kimmy etc) but the bet for a non-seed to win the ladies' fourth quarter priced at an outrageous 33/1 by Skybet (on which we had 4pts) has surprisingly come good!
All the non-seeds that I thought could be contenders had lost only for Pironkova to step up and knock out Venus! The bet return is 136pts so not only are we certain to make a profit on the World Cup we are also certain to make a profit on Wimbledon!
Unlike the World Cup I am not confident of showing a profit on Wimbledon. Serena and Venus look very strong and my picks in their respective sections of the draw, Sharapova and Clijsters will find it hard to get past them. Clijsters has a difficult match against Henin before the possibility of a Venus semi-final.
In the men's event we still have an outside chance with Berdych. Federer and Nadal have both given hope to others that they are beatable. This is particularly the case with Nadal who had injury concerns in his match yesterday. The player who has impressed most in the first week in my opinion is Soderling. He has a potential quarter final with Nadal before the possibility of Murray in the semi-final. He is 2-2 with Murray H2H, winning the last two encounters. Therefore I've had 5pts each way Soderling at 7/1 this morning with Sportingbet on Bobby Sod to win the event.
Time to have a look at how we stand on our World Cup investments on the eve of the England v Germany game.
In total I've laid out 28.5pts on the event which includes the two losing match bets. Returns so far are:
USA to win Group C 12pts
France elimination Group A 19.5pts
France bottom Group A 8.5pts
Total so far 40pts
We are in healthy profit for the event and still have bets running on Mexico, Holland and Van Persie. We also have the Defoe England TGS bet at 12/1 which is now generally a 2/1 shot following his goal. Should Germany score tomorrow and England fire blanks then the bet would be a dead -heat winner paying 11/2. Defoe would be joint top of the table (with Gerrard) on one goal! Let's see what happens tomorrow.
One bet at Wimbledon today. Here's a name for you - Oleksandr Dolgopolov. Already ranked 43 in the world the talented youngster from Ukraine reached the semi final at Eastbourne where he lost a close match with Llodra. The latter played well against Roddick in his four set defeat on Wednesday. Dolgo won his first ever Wimbledon match in straight sets, serving 13 aces in the victory. His serve is impressive - a very simple but effective stroke.
He plays the injury prone JW Tsonga today. Tsonga beat Kendrick in four tight sets in his first round match. He had to retire at the French Open, something that has happened several times in his career. Therefore I'm betting with Ladbrokes (or Blue Square/888) who only require one point to be played in the match for a result to stand. Two points win Dolgo at 11/4 for the match.
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