Favs continue to struggle

Only 3/5 favs won in Pattaya, Chan and Dushevina losing, a surprising loss by Dushevina, who is usually very solid against the lower ranked players. And only 2/5 won in Paris, with Rezai, Schiavone and Schnyder perishing. Looks like the Fed Cup form just never translates very well to main tour events, as Safarova and Petkovic had poor results at the weekend but have come out and done well in Paris. I'm also quite surprised at how easily Patty appears to have lost to Oudin, though she often takes a set to get going so perhaps the 1st set scoreline isn't wholly representative. I had anticipated the wily old campaigner, who had played well in her 1st match, to have too many tricks for the youngster who would never have played anyone of Patty's ilk before.

Had another good day with a few in running bets on the tennis coming in. I did let a bet on Patty run too long and may have got a bit ego-bound as she was the tip of the day. You cannot afford to let the need to be right affect you, and thinking back as dispassionately as I can I was probably guilty of that. Cost me a chunk of the day's profits! May have to re-examine doing the tip of the day experiment if it's going to mess with my head like that.Again some very interesting matches today. Was seething when Eurosport didn't cover the Schnyder match last night - hopefully they will cover all 4 qf's today. They didn't even have it on their much advertised subscription stream player. What a shocking channel ES is. They have their exclusive WTA deal but really do mess about with the coverage. The WTA must look at better options when the deal comes up for renewal, as the ES coverage doesn't do the sport justice.

Back to normal

After a crazy few days it was a relief to have a nice low key day today! Think the antennae must've been working well as it turned out to be carnage for the favs.

In Pattaya only 3 of the 7 favs won. This amounts to an absolute bloodbath in WTA terms, and quite unusual for this season so far. Losing favs were KDK by retirement (went into the match with an ankle injury), Goerges to a resurgent Karatantcheva, Mirza, and Lisicki. Not a massive surprise about any of them really. In Paris, 3 of the 5 favs won, Wickmayer and Vesnina losing. Martic impressed in beating Wickmayer and is definitely one for the notebook! Penne and Kleybanova played one awesome set of high octane tennis, though Kleybs fell away in the 2nd set.Just had a few in-running bets on the tennis following the 70k method but not the staking plan! And backed the Arse in the tv EPL game on the basis that the thought of backing Pool made me physically ill and backing the draw is for girls. Very happy with the days results.Some intriguing matchups tomorrow, but again no real standout bets pre-match.

9 Feb

Hasty note as got to get to bed - Pattaya kicks off at 8am UK time, an hour earlier than previous days for some unknown reason.

I didn't note who the favs were in Pattaya so can't say for sure how many won, but looking at the matchups I'd say all 9 did. In Paris, 7/9 won, with one match being pick 'em - losing favs were Olaru and Razzano. The latter probably loses most often when fav of any of the players, though I've got no stats to back that up - just her name keeps cropping up again and again! Srebotnik, one of my fav players, acquitted herself pretty well on her return from a long term injury (she had played Fed Cup at the weekend too), nearly winning the 1st set, but faded away in the 2nd.

Had a pretty good day again, though a couple overnight NHL bets lost. Not too upset with that as I've been doing remarkably well on them. I only started them as the NHL was something to watch during Aus rain breaks or waiting for matches to start. The one footie bet - Man Citeh - obliged, and the tennis went well. I did chicken out of a couple bets that went on to win, but this recent good run has got me spooked a bit and may be making me too conservative, though I did let the Srebotnik bet run too long out of sentiment, which of course has no place in this business!Can't see any standout bets tomorrow so I don't anticipate too much action, but will be watching to get impressions for the later rounds.

Betfair down .... again!

Another long overnight outage scheduled for Betfair, effectively wiping out an ODI in Aus and the whole day's betting in Pattaya. What is the matter with the stupid place? Now if only Betdaq could step it up and provide some serious competition. Sadly it's a case of do as I say not as I do, because after the last time I went onto Betdaq during Sydney was such a waste of time I won't be bothering tonight. I suppose it's that sort of laziness which helps Betfair maintain their monopoly position.

A solid start to the week, with a nice win on the Superbowl and a couple small footie bets. There were only 5 WTA matches with markets - Betfair seem to have stopped offering markets on qualies - and all 5 favs trotted up. Easy to make money when that happens.
Paris is scheduled to be covered all afternoon on Eurosport so an interesting day in prospect. Some intriguing matches, with Srebotnik coming back from a long injury layoff and several others playing after their weekend Fed Cup exploits. Who knows what kind of shape they're in? I can foresee the howls of protest on the Betfair forum if the tanking starts, and assuming Betfair is back up. Should be good!