Showing posts with label Berdych. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Berdych. Show all posts

Friday, April 19, 2013

Montecarlo - QF - friday

Fognini ousted Berdych, and from a well paid price and I was on him, also let it go covering the red but not equalizing the greens. A pretty profitable one.
I'm not shocked by the other upsets: Murray by Wawrinka and Del Potro by Nieminen (I said Nieminen   was great against Raonic, and I read his defence worked also against the Argentinian).

Like yestarday, I'm going to be here only for the first match, and part of the second if the first is quick enough. Oh, no! Second match is Dimitrov - Nadal, I'd rather skip it.

Anyway I couldn't ask for a better match at 10:30 than Wawrinka - Tsonga.
Wawrinka slight favourite (1.9 to 2.1), as he beated Murray and also because is the better claycourter.
With those premises I would have expected odds to be much shorter on him so it little puzzles me at the moment.
The match could be a dramatic one, though, with momentum swinging from side to side and both suffering of sudden blackouts.
As a proof of this: all their previous meeting went up to the deciding set, Tsonga leads 2-1 and they are 1-1 on clay, both match on clay took place at the French Open.
Strange thing is that they've only met in France (the non-clay match was in Metz, indoor; actually they also record an exhibition match, in Paris, on clay, and Tsonga won in straight) with crowd supporting Tsonga, but thing is going to happen again today and if Stan is the one looking in better shape and confidence, Tsonga will have an entire stadium cheering him, and he loves playing for the crowd.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Montecarlo - round of 16 - thursday

Things worked for the most part of the day, yesterday. But I can't be happy.
Again, just one trade going wrong and the day was nearly fucked up.

The one going wrong was Almagro - Melzer, and that was stupid as I thought Almagro price was too short. And in fact I was on Melzer. But then Almagro didn't look so tired, and he played a good opening game of second set, and so I thought Melzer was done (his game was very risky, many serve and volleys...), I backed Almagro when an all green was possible as well.... later Melzer took the break and instead of reducing the loss, as usual, I took more of it. Melzer won and all the profits from the morning were almost erased.
Before this moment of madness I:

  • had an all green in Berdych - Granollers, Berdych had a slow start but took the set, after Granollers also failed to serve the set out. 
  • had a nice profit from Nieminen - Raonic. Watching this match wasn't planned but due to the all green in Berdych/Granollers I switched on this just at the beginning of the third set. Nieminen was playing really well his movements and speed were outstanding and he was returning almost everything, even though it's not easy to break Raonic serve. The Finnish won in the tiebreak.
  • Backed Fognini but didn't watch the match, so the bet was left running.
Gulbis/Monaco luckily was a dramatic match and I made a good profit of it.

Today only morning matches for me, so one/one and half trade.

I find both Berdych/Fognini and Tsonga/Melzer interesting.
The first one possibly will have the same development of yesterday; Berdych having a slow start; moreover Fognini seems in a decent shape and on clay can be a tough one for Berdych.
Both Melzer and Tsonga play aggressive tennis, and anything can happen. Clay is the worst surface for the frenchmen and 1.22 is a bit short.


Saturday, September 1, 2012

USO - Day 6

First not posted my picks here, shame because it was one rare positive day:
Steve Johnson - Ernests Gulbis: pick Johnson 1 unit @3.00 +2
Philipp Kohlschreiber - Benoit Paire: pick Paire 1 unit @4.33 -1
Fabio Fognini - Guillermo Garcia-Lopez: pick Fognini 2 units @2.2 +2.4
Janko Tipsarevic - Brian Baker: pick Baker 2 units @4.5 -2
Na Li - Laura Robson: pick Robson 1 unit @6.5 +5.5
Petra Kvitová - Pauline Parmentier: pick Parmentier 1 unit @13.00 - 1
Maria Sharapova - Mallory Burdette: pick Burdette 1 unit @19 -1
Maria Sharapova - Mallory Burdette: pick Over 16.5 games 3 units @1.90 -3
+1.9 to close a negative august.

Today's picks:
Marin Cilic - Kei Nishikori: pick Nishikori -2.5 games 2 units @1.96 -2
Nishikori leads the head to head 2-1, all on hardcourt.
Neat run so far for the japanese, with two 3-0 wins over Andreozzi and Smyczek.
Two marathon for the croatian, 3-2 wins over Matosevic and Brands.
The time spent on court could make the difference on the long run here.
Nishikori is a hardcourter that mostly practice in the US, on this kind of surfaces.
Though not an hard hitter, he shows not relevant weak, but also strong, points that makes him a player hard to read.
The match will be played from baseline, with long rallies and Nishi's physical preparation and agility on side-movements added Cilic's previus rounds efforts will do the difference.

Jeremy Chardy - Martin Klizan: pick Klizan 2 units @2.20 +3
1-1 the head to head, both on clay.
By far the less interesting match today, though I find the odd nice.
Both have had a busy season with many match played and also some finals at Challenger level:
37/20 for Chardy, 1 title in Noumea (hardcourt) and runner-up in Tunis (clay)
39/17 for Klizan, 4 titles Rabat, Marrakech, Bordeaux and San Marino and runner-up in Prague (all on clay).
With his power Chardy better suit to hardcourt while Klizan baseline defensive play makes him a solid claycourter.
Klizan's skills on hard haven't fully showed themselves though since this his only his 6th match on this surface so far in this season and his results are encouraging since he's never been great favoured, while as huge underdog took Isner to the third set in Winston-Salem and defaeted Tsonga in R2.
His defensive skills, his not heavy balls harder to deliver for the opponent and his crossed-forehand on his opponent backhand (Klizan is leftie) could cause many problems to Chardy who can easily hit tons of unforced errors.

Tomas Berdych - Sam Querrey: pick Querrey 2 units @3.40 -2
Berdych leads the head to heads 2-1 last one just one week ago in Winston-Salem.
The difference to me is smaller than the one made by the odd.
Both hard hitters, and solid servers, the difference will be made by few points.
The support for the local player and the possibility to win the point in other ways than a baseline forehand could be important weapons in a long, tensed match.

Gilles Simon - Mardy Fish: pick Simon 2 units @3.25 -2
Simon leads the head to head 2-1 (1-1 on hard and 1-0 on clay)
Though local and with decent result on the US Open Series, the fact that Fish has played bit too much recently and above all the fifth set battle at the previous round could be aan handicap for the american who's struggled with physical problems for the whole season.
Both solid serve-returners, could battle for long if none of them take a wide advantage, and a long match will favor Simon.

Sara Errani - Olga Puchkova: pick Puchkova 1 unit @13 -1
Again against Errani, this time her opponent is an hardcourter

-4



Tuesday, August 28, 2012

USO R1 - Day 2

T Bellucci - P Andujar: pick Andujar @3.50 1 unit
I always thought Andujar to be a decent hardcourter for his tennis is pretty offensive.
Different from most (nearly totality) of spaniards he plays closer to the baseline, and attack from both sides, above all from forehand.
Bellucci has just had a great july getting many points from clay and that has probably made his season.
Despite Bellucci leading the head to head 3-0, all of them on clay, I consider Andujar techinically superior and also given he is better ranked (37 Andujar, 40 Bellucci) I'd made odds lower.

D Goffin - T Berdych: pick Goffin +2.5 set @1.95 2 units
I don't use this kind of selection often, but here this is going to be a must today.
Pick's made against Berdych mental grip that is never been so good and could easily drop a set give he also come from Winston-Salem Final played two days ago.
Goffin is a young talented with solid serve and grondstrokes that makes him able to bear the rallies against Berdych.

T Pironkova - C Giorgi: pick Giorgi @2.37 3 units
Despite there's "ITA" written next to Camila Giorgi she has really little to do with Italy. She's an argentinian that does her training in the USA.
And her tennis can be defined an american-one, done of great serve with a first ball speed that could work also in ATP, and aggressive groundstrokes.
Giving a look to her 2011 here http://www.tennisexplorer.com/player/giorgi/?annual=2011 , and her 2012 here: http://www.tennisexplorer.com/player/giorgi/?annual=2011 we see that she plays out of USA only in Grand Slams.
I think this year's Wimbledon run has helped her to find convinction in herself, and on the other hand has shown a Pironkova in great difficulty, as if she hasn't been working and that was happenning also last season.
So an ascending player against a descending one.
And surface will help more the powerful Giorgi than the crazy Pironkova who needs the crazy bounce of grass court.

B Jovanovski - M Barthel: pick Jovanovski @4.00 1 unit
Berthel is trying to find back herself after a couple of awful months.
Meanwhile Jovanvski is growing up.
Barthel has a good record on hard so far this year but going deep her opponents often were unrelevant ones that took her to be a bit overrated on later tournaments, like I find her to be here.

M Kirilenko - C Scheepers: pick Scheepers +1.5 set @2.46 1 unit
Another set handicap against a last weekend finalist.
And it was a very tough match for Kirilenko losing 7-6 7-5 to Kvitova.
Scheepers is a solid baseliner that could easily take advantage of a lower of tension.
Kirilenko is playing a lot since june: quarterfinalist at Wimbledon, fourth place in both singles and double at the Olyimpics, and final last week in New Haven.
Scheepers also leads the hardcourt head to head 2-1 (the total of the h2h is 2-2).

Rememeber this? http://bettobettingblog.blogspot.it/2012/08/us-open-draws.html
Radwanska from 65 to 48 and no match played, today's match against Bratchikova.

-0,5

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Winston Salem - New Haven QF

S Darcis - T Berdych: pick Darcis @4.6 1 unit
This odds well worth a small try.
Darcis seems on fire, reaching quarterfinal after three matches as underdog.
The hugest, no need to explain, was yesterday against Roddick.
It took two tie-break, and it's another great result give the great serve of Andy.
As I watched couple of game I must say that Darcis isn't a bad player, he uses some variation of rhythm slowing with slice backhand then hitting winners with the forehand.
And though a not great first serve percentage (61%) he conceided, and saved, only one break point.
Talking about precentages the one of Berdych's first serve was horrible: 47%. This to me mean that he's not in agreat shape, above all mentally, and mental skills are his best. If the experienced Roddick didn't manage to find a weak point in Darcis, harder will do it Berdych.
Moreover Darcis leads the head to head 2-0, with a recent 6-4 6-4 at the Olympics.

L Safarova - P Kvitova: pick Safarova @2.70 1 unit
Big surprise that they've never met, officially at least since they belong to he same tennis club and know each other very well.
Petra has had two busy week winning Montreal then losing in semifinal in Cincinnati.
Going deep also this week seems suicidal, given that US Open are next week.

-2
About Darcis - Berdych:
Odds were wrong? Maybe.
The match could be divided into two parts.
Against all the evidences the first part do not coincide with the first set, it was shorter.
Darcis started very well, with a solid serve and a well working plans in his mind: playing sliced backhand possibly crossed to Berdych's backhand, so that he could not accelerate; and from that scenario there were many possible way to win the point: Berdych's unforced, Darcis hitting forehand winner from baseline; one of them approaching the net, ending up with Darcis winning with a volley or passing when the opponent was a the net.
Things worked since the 5-2, with a double break in favour of belgian.
Berdych breaking back to 5-3 could be intended as a drop of tension given by the wide lead.
Darcis won the set on his service but it was just an accident: the plan he drawed was lost and he couldn't find it in the rest of the match, playing as Berdych said "back and back and by the end he was close to the fans, which is the way I need to play with the guys."