The French Open Quarter finals begin today with some mouthwatering clashes, including the eagerly anticipated match between Serena Williams and Justine Henin. This is a replay of the 2003 semi final in which the French Open crowd gave Williams perhaps their harshest treatment in recent years - they love a good booing... this is of course when they can be bothered to turn up to watch their Grand Slam - empty seats a-plenty at Roland Garros for the early matches, it seems a case of Food over French Open..
Ana Ivanovic is up first (in the empty stadium) against Svetlana Kuznetsova. Ivanovic is on something of a roll at the moment. It appears a lot of the shots she normally hits long of the baseline are somehow dropping in, and that's dangerous - cos she hit's that ball rather hard. 2.76 is her price for this match, might turn out to be value. No bet yet though, she's inexperienced at this stage of Grand Slams, Kuznetsova isn't, and can I honestly bring myself to trust Anna? Not sure I can..there's 20 unforced errors in a row in her somewhere.
Jelena Jankovic takes on Nicole Vaidisova. 1.37 on JJ at time of writing, I think this is a bet - I'm not on yet though - it's unlikely to be televised here and I don't like going in heavy on these. Vaidisova may, in time, have the game to win this match, but her mentality sucks. Anxious looks to her coach everytime she misses a shot - even 2 minutes into the match sometimes. She may have game, but she ain't got brain.
Anna Chakvetadze takes on Maria Sharapova. Somehow I've missed every single one of Anna's matches to this point. She's a good player, lots of variety, and I'm convinced someone will eventually see off Sharapova (please!!!). Maria's been anything but impressive so far, unless you count her ability to wail like a banshee (volume in proportion to importance of point), which she seems to have taken to an entirely new and unwelcome pitch this tournament. I felt sorry for her last round opponent Patty Schnyder who's like a door mouse in comparison, she really did crawl into her shell (or hole in the wall) under a barrage of screams, shreeks, shrills and wails... anyone outside the court may have thought someone was getting stabbed in there.
Quote of the week might well be the rather obscure "It’s tough playing tennis and being Mother Teresa at the same time", wailed after the match by Maria, clearly she lives in some sort of strange abstract fantasy World. Patty did have match points against Queen wailer, so hopefully Chak can finish the job off today. 2.9 is the price for Chak, looks a cracking bet given Maria's serve isn't screaming on full lungs.
Serena Williams and Justine Henin. As John Lloyd has been overly pleased to pronounce all week - this is for many people the finals. Jelena Jankovic would like to disagree with you John.. but it is a bloody good match... there may well be blood left on the court after this one. Justine begins 1.6 favourite at time of writing. Personally I would be surprised if Serena can win this one today, but then she always does come up with the surprises. It's tough to quantify Serena's chances here, she is the ultimate competitor in Women's tennis, yes she has incredible talent, but her will to win makes up a large amount of her game - from this comes her movement etc. It's a slower surface, she'll need to be timing it well to get it past Justine... it's going to be fascinating. Hope it lives up to John Lloyd's hype, he's rarely right on anything.
Roger Federer takes on Tommy Robredo. Bye Tommy. And two walls face off later on - Davydenko and Canas. Davydenko's wall is made of silicon and various other metals - he's cold, he's robotic. The other wall, Canas, is like a more muscley version of pong, but shaped like a bull. They may well be playing until Thursday afternoon these two. Good luck if you are trading today.
Nice to see some previews Matt....I do agree with most of them except that Chakvetadze will not have enough to beat/challenge Sharapova, she is not consistent enough...
As much as i like Jankovic as player (she seems to be a nice person too) and however I still have her for quite a nice amount as outright winner i will probably lay off when she meets Henin next.
Keep up the good work!
Posted by: hobbi | June 05, 2007 at 10:24 AM
Hi hobbi, I may have got a little carried away with my Chakvetadze write up. I haven't had a bet myself, I think it's just wishful thinking - you might notice that I'm not the biggest Sharapova fan!
I also have a good amount on her to win the tournament, I'll see if she wins today when the odds are after the Henin match. I would love to run it though, think she has a good chance. Come on Jankovic :)
Posted by: Matt | June 05, 2007 at 11:49 AM
Hi Matt, well Sharapova did what she was expected to do...:)
I guess we both face the same now, i am a bit disappointed that Jankovic is currently available at 5, i thought she would trade a bit lower after her win today...
Now what to do, lay off for a smaller profit or ride it out...She seems to have some problems closing matches, she was all over Henin in Berlin, but something creeped into her mind, how will she handle it in such a big match/tournament as the Roland Garros semi-final is?
I will probably settle for a smaller profit and be happy with that when she first beats Henin and after that Ivanovic in the final:)
Buy the ticket, take the ride....
Posted by: hobbi | June 05, 2007 at 08:12 PM
You are so right in your comments about Sharapova, she is just disgusting to me with all her screams and unfair play.
Keep upp the good work!
Posted by: teo813 | June 07, 2007 at 04:10 AM
Well, in the end i did lay off Jelena on the outright winner market which turned out not to be a bad move.....
I dont know if she did not have her day, but there were many unforced errors and she missed a lot of winners she normally would not have...at some point she did not believe in it anymore, which happened pretty soon in the match if you ask me...
I still feel that Henin's price was a bit short pre-match, and could not resist to back JJ with a view to trading later....did not have a single chance.
Of course credit to Justine she played brilliant!
Posted by: hobbi | June 07, 2007 at 06:57 PM
hobbi, glad you layed off. Unfortunately I didn't, but it was only a small bet and I had a saver bet on Henin from earlier in the tournament. The final was a real disappointment, but not from a betting perspective - Henin became value quickly in the 1st set, it's not often things are so clear cut. Hope you did ok on the men's.
Posted by: Matt | June 10, 2007 at 05:49 PM
Hi Matt -i agree, from a betting perspective it was a great match, i backed Henin to win 2-0 which was 'easy or free money' as some people like to say. It was a great tournament for me, lets see what the grass season will bring.
Posted by: hobbi | June 11, 2007 at 08:20 AM