Federer gets his backers home

[dave nz]

With his number one ranking on the line, Roger Federer survived a classic 3rd round encounter with Janko Tipsarevic. Before the match, Federer was trading at 1.01 with both Betfair and bookies, although William Hill did offer 1.02. Almost $300K was matched at 1.01 pre-match.

When Federer found himself 2 sets to 1 down, he was trading in the 1.45-1.50 range and over $4.7 million had been matched on Federer between at 1.05 or less. Then at 6-all in the fifth set, he was still a 1.40 favourite. But when he broke at 8-all he stormed into 1.03 before duly holding serve. Over AUD$27 million was traded on the marathon match.

Federer started the match at 1.65 win the title. He drifted to as much as 2.46 in the run, but is back to 1.75 to win his next four match and claim a fourth straight Australian title.

[dave nz]

Davydenko and coruption saga :

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/spo...cle3221558.ece

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/tennis/7187536.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/tennis/7179695.stm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/mai...ambling115.xml



Some more tennis betting related articles :

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/sp...in&oref=slogin

http://uk.reuters.com/article/UK_TEN...SP493720080115

[Dr. Jack]

Dave,

Tennis needs a new John McEnroe type, someone with some fire. It just seems so boring. It's all the same; Federer can't lose and Denko tanking again!

What is the future of Tennis? Do you see it becoming more popular or fading away? And what is the perception of Tennis in US and outside the US?

Thoughts?

[dave nz]

Doc,

Out of all the sports tennis is not one I follow that closely. My interest picks up this time of year though as my part of the world hosts some major tournaments and of course anything with betting that is in the news I will take an interest in.

The US is such a huge market but right now unlike much of history the US doesn't have a dominant mens player. Which in turn turns some people in the US away and Including the all Important media coverage.

Outside the US tennis is booming, 20 years ago many of the countries who now have players in the World's top 100 rankings did not have many top players at all. For example China, other parts of Asia and certain European smaller countries. In certain parts of Europe in particular the future is bright, I know there are some great systems in place for supporting and developing young players on the rise. Tennis has alot going for it in so many departments I personally think it will continue to grow.

[Dr. Jack]

Good point. They need another Agassi or someone US fans can rally around

[dave nz]

Roddick was seen as a big hope when he came onto the scene, but hasn't been able to dominate. The standard is so high in so many other countries now and with the strong structures and systems in place its going to be tough for any country to compete with parts of Europe (In terms of producing quality players) in the future.