9 Feb

Today was just the sort of silly day that I've been having all year and which I need to avoid, with one daft loss wiping out the day's profits. Held on to a position on Tsurenko too long rather than take the red, as she kept hinting at a comeback only to have it snuffed out by some daft ue or other. Still seething that she managed to lose to the mediocre journeywoman Soler Espinosa. Also, I'd made a really good all green trade on the LDL match, but didn't leave it alone and frittered away some of it with a couple later bad trades.

Grrrr. Still, at least it was only a fiver down on the day.

I'm not sure if any of this public self-admonishment is actually going to do any good - we shall see.

In their "wisdom", Betfair market ops added the FedCup tie outright markets to the in play coupon, just to make them more confusing and cluttered to read. What a crap company they are. They really do need some competition to sort them out.

8 Feb

Sheer boredom caused me to have a dabble on Bundesliga 2 this evening, and thankfully a nice little win. Don't scoff - they all add up!

Some of the Fed Cup ties are hit by injuries and withdrawals and all the tweets of players parties and general hilarity is making me a bit leery of the event as a whole. May tread cautiously, especially with Doha just a couple days away. Looks like a very good field for that.

Speaking of tweets, another change in the last 2 years has been the increased use of social media by the players. Many now have Twitter. There was also this gem posted on Youtube by @laurarobson5

The girls of summer

Was so sad to hear it officially confirmed that Agnes Szavay has retired. Who can forget that US hardcourt summer season of 2007 when she burst onto the scene reaching the New Haven final and US Open qf, following it up with 2 good tournaments on the Asian swing including an epic final win over JJ. And all the time wearing that iconic Marilyn Monroe style white dress.

She joins several other players who I loved to watch but who have faded from the scene - Alona Bondarenko and Chakkers to name two. Sad to say most of the current players seem to lack the same glamour and style. There may be hope, however, in the forms of Tsurenko, Bouchard, Vekic and Cepelova. Who knows when one of these up and coming players might suddenly experience a surge in form as Agnes did in 2007?

It leaves me searching for a new background photo for the blog. It's going to be hard to replace the current one! Good luck, Agi.

WTA Article

Two years is a long time in tennis

A lot has changed since I last blogged, and some things have surprisingly remained the same. Here is the top 15 from 2 years ago:

1 WOZNIACKI
2 CLIJSTERS
3 ZVONAREVA
4 SCHIAVONE
5 STOSUR
6 WILLIAMS, VENUS
7 LI, NA
8 JANKOVIC
9 AZARENKA
10 RADWANSKA
11 PEER
12 WILLIAMS, SERENA
13 SHARAPOVA
14 PAVLYUCHENKOVA
15 BARTOLI

Gone are Kim, Bepa, Fran, Venus, Shahar, JJ and Pav. Stosur and Na Li still mid table, and both winning their maiden Slam. In have come Errani, Kerber, Kvitova, Petrova (!), Kirilenko, Ivanovic and Cibulkova. There's been a fair bit of churning of positions among the others. But a turnover of under 50% maybe isn't that remarkable.

The most remarkable thing to me of the last 2 years was Maria "cow on ice" Sharapova winning RG. And, of course, the astounding Golden Set by Shvedova over Errani at Wimbledon. That was so unbelievable that I still don't think many really appreciate just how silly it was.

Focus

Hello, blogosphere.

It's been about 2 years since I last blogged, and last felt the need so to do. But I've found myself really struggling with focus since the start of the year and am resuming the blog in the hope that daily reporting will help to find that zone.

It's actually a week with very little on. There's no women's tennis until the Fed Cup on Saturday, and I don't propose to have any bets on other sports in the meantime. So as I have the time I thought I'd resurrect the blog.

I should change the photo of the lovely Agnes Szavay as sadly I don't think we'll be seeing her on the tennis court again. She reappeared briefly last summer in order to compete in the Olympics, but I think her back problems spell the end. However I'll leave the photo up until there's official confirmation.

Might as well start with a winning PL, and had a nice win on the Superbowl last night!