Posts Tagged ‘federer’

Federer to fade?

Many years ago I wandered over to SW19 during a very hot English summer, to watch what would turn out to be the very last tennis match at Wimbledon for one Pete Sampras.
He came out onto No 2 court, looking jaded and perhaps ever so slightly confused. Why was he here, on the ‘graveyard’ court, a world champion?

He lost the match, and pretty soon after retired. Sampras was once a safe bet, someone you could lay a bit of cash down on and expect a nice little earner. He was a big gun. The equivalent of a steady racehorse that had a few years in him and then went quietly off into the wings.

Now we have Federer. Roger is a supreme tennis player. Some say he is the best ever, and they have a point. He’s blasting Sampras’ form out of the water anyway.

Tennis is a great sport to lay money down on, because you have the old-fashioned, prolonged drama of watching two people battle it out, with little human error or other unpredictability affecting the result. You study form, and bet accordingly.
Yet it is arguable that the game is becoming quite safe. Let us take a case from the past to illustrate this.
Remember Goran Ivanisevic? This player caused quite a stir a few years ago when he won Wimbledon from out of nowhere and the punters had a very big day.

Could it happen today? Well, Roger has just regained his ranking crown, you could have bet on that. Or you could bet on him winning his next ATP match in London. Betfair have him at 1.35 for that in their online tennis betting market.

Seems it is a one horse race at the moment, the real winners among us can only wait and see if we can spot the signs of Federer fading, and then bet the other way.
However, can’t see him gracing No 2 court just yet, can you?

Tags: ATP london, Betfair, federer, pete sampras, tennis betting, wimbledon
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