Skip to main content

Hot favourite for Aussie glory Henin is "better" than Federer

originally published Dec 7 2007 on betting.betfair.com

Scott's Spot - Scott looks at Henin's unbelievable year in 2007 and why you're best off backing her for the Aussie Open now

The Australian Open final is under two months away and recently we've been taking an early look at who is likely to be a contender in the Rod Laver Arena. I've taken a look at the women's lineup.

Justine Henin landed every prize on her schedule in 2007 in an amazing performance. After the breakup of her marriage kept her away from Melbourne, she lost just FOUR times for the rest of the year - to Safarova in first event back in February, Serena in Miami, Kuznetsova in Berlin and Bartoli in that unbelievable semi at Wimbledon. Since Wimbledon, she has won 25 matches in a row and has dropped just three sets.

This is as close to domination in the women's game since the best set of legs ever to grace a tennis court, Steffi Graf, reigned in the early 90s. While all the plaudits go to Federer, it's worth noting that his season record was 68-9. Henin's tally for the year was 63-4. One of them is priced at 1.66, the other at 2.3.

Onto Melbourne - what's her record like there? What's she likely to do during the northern winter? Well, let's face it - she's hardly likely to spend a month in a Krispy Kreme or McDonalds and put on two stone in weight. In the past she has headed to Australia early, played one preliminary event (Sydney) , won it (2004 and 2006) and then gone onto reach the Australian Open final - winner 2004, runner-up in 2006. She missed 2005 due to injury.

Whilst Henin goes from strength to strength, the chasing pack is a little less convincing.


For the full article, click here

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Spot-fixing - you will never, ever be able to stop it

According to this report , IPL tournaments so far have been rife with spot-fixing - that is fixing minor elements of the game - runs in a single over, number of wides bowled etc. The curious part of that article is that the Income Tax department are supposed to have found these crimes. What idiot would be stupid enough to put down 'big wad of cash handed to me by bookie' as a source of income? Backhanders for sportsmen, particularly in a celebrity- and cricket-obsessed culture like India are not rare. They could come from anything like turning up to open someone's new business (not a sponsor, but a 'friend of a friend' arrangement), to being a guest at some devoted fan's dinner party etc. The opportunities are always there, and there will always be people trying to become friends with players and their entourage - that is human nature. This form of match-fixing (and it's not really fixing a match, just a minor element of it) is very hard to prove, but also,

It's all gone Pete Tong at Betfair!

The Christmas Hurdle from Leopardstown, a good Grade 2 race during the holiday period. But now it will go into history as the race which brought Betfair down. Over £21m at odds of 29 available on Voler La Vedette in-running - that's a potential liability of over £500m. You might think that's a bit suspicious, something's fishy, especially with the horse starting at a Betfair SP of 2.96. Well, this wasn't a horse being stopped by a jockey either - the bloody horse won! Look at what was matched at 29. Split that in half and multiply by 28 for the actual liability for the layer(s). (Matched amounts always shown as double the backers' stake, never counts the layers' risk). There's no way a Betfair client would have £600m+ in their account. Maybe £20 or even £50m from the massive syndicates who regard(ed) Betfair as safer than any bank, but not £600m. So the error has to be something technical. However, rumour has it, a helpdesk reply (not gospel, natur

lay the field - my favourite racing strategy

Dabbling with laying the field in-running at various prices today, not just one price, but several in the same race. Got several matched in the previous race at Brighton, then this race came along at Nottingham. Such a long straight at Nottingham makes punters often over-react and think the finish line is closer than it actually is. As you can see by the number of bets matched, there was plenty of volatility in this in-play market. It's rare you'll get a complete wipe-out with one horse getting matched at all levels, but it can happen, so don't give yourself too much risk...