Fabrice Santoro looks good value at 10/3 in-running

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Fabrice Santoro has won 14 of his last 16 grass court matches against players ranked outside the top 40 but is available at 10/3 with 888sport heading into a first set tie-break.

UPDATE: After winning the first set, the Frenchman is now 5/4, so hopefully you got on early. 5/4 is still a fair price though; the bookmakers tend to stand by their initial favourite even after they lose the first set. This habit also allowed us to profit from Lleyton Hewitt earlier. The Australian was still available at evens after going a set up on Juan Martin del Potro and eventually won in straight sets.

Posted: June 24th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

Stats about the six leading contenders to win Wimbledon

Click here for all the latest odds on this year’s men’s singles

Hint: It’s everybody in the picture above except Davydenko and Simon

After waiting for an eternity to see Roger Federer dethroned and a new champion crowned, Rafael Nadal’s withdrawal with injury guarantees that there will once again be a changing of the guard at Wimbledon. Here are some statistics about the six men that the bookmakers consider the frontrunners:

Roger Federer
Best Wimbledon Performance: Winner (2003, 2004, 2005, ‘06, ‘07)
Grass Court Win Rate (prior to Wimbledon 2009): 87%
The world number two was unbeaten in 65 matches on grass prior to last year’s final defeat to Nadal and is quite rightly favourite to regain his title in the Spaniard’s absence. However, coming back from losing the previous year’s final is difficult, with Nadal the only person in the last 18 years to have done so, and nobody since Rod Laver in 1962 has completed a French Open-Wimbledon double at the first time of asking (Bjorn Borg and Nadal both have but not in the year of their first win at Roland Garros).

Andy Murray
Best Wimbledon Performance: Quarter-finals (2008)
Grass Court Win Rate: 78%

Posted: June 23rd, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

Roger Federer and Fernando Gonzalez are favourites to make the French Open Final

A 2007 Australian Open Final repeat could be on the cards

Over the course of the last 14 Grand Slams there has only been one final that has occurred more than once - with Roger Federer facing Rafael Nadal seven times in that period. However, the bookmakers make Federer and Fernando Gonzalez favourites to win their semi-finals and set up a repeat of the 2007 Australian Open Final. Here are all the key stats about today’s matches:

Click here to check out the Ladbrokes’ French Open Wizard

Robin Soderling v Fernando Gonzalez
Soderling has taken care of David Ferrer, Nadal and Nikolay Davydenko to get this far but now has to conquer Gonzalez, who he has lost four straight clashes with, two of which were on clay. Over the last three years, every men’s semi-final at Roland Garros has been won by the player who won the pair’s previous meeting. Both men have had sensational tournaments so far, with Soderling dropping just two sets and Gonzalez one so it should be close. The Chilean is a worthy favourite though having excelled in his only other Grand Slam semi (Australian Open 2007), beating Tommy Haas 6-1 6-3 6-1.

Posted: June 5th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

Local hero Gael Monfils tries to take down Roger Federer

Previews of today’s four French Open quarter-final matches

Usually it’s the women’s tournament that produces the biggest upsets but yesterday two more male favourites were sent packing as Robin Soderling and Fernando Gonzalez took care of Nikolay Davydenko and Andy Murray. The man hoping to make the year of the underdog continue today is Gael Monfils, the last remaining Frenchman in the tournament, who meets favourite Roger Federer, who knocked him out 12 months ago:

Click here to check out the Ladbrokes’ French Open Wizard

Sorana Cirstea v Samantha Stosur
The Grand Slam quarter-final stage is unfamiliar territory for both of these women, neither of whom are in the top 30 of the world rankings. There’s not much to go on as the pair have never clashed before but Cirstea has only dropped one set so far compared to Stosur’s two. Both have taken high-profile scalps, with the 19-year-old Romanian stopping Jelena Jankovic, who reached the semi-finals in 2007 and 2008, and Australian Stosur getting rid of former finalist Elena Dementieva. Stosur is the favourite here.

Svetlana Kuznetsova v Serena Williams
Serena/Safina is the final that most expect but Kuznetsova won’t roll over for the self-proclaimed world number one. In the last three years, the Russian has reached the final, quarter-finals and semi-finals at Roland Garros, whereas Williams last got past this point in 2003. In fact, four of Serena’s last

Posted: June 3rd, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

Nadal takes over as favourite after easing past Gonzalez

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Andy Murray may be gone but the Australian Open men’s betting is still really tight ahead of the quarter-finals. Rafael Nadal has leapfrogged Roger Federer after crushing 2007 finalist Fernando Gonzalez but his toughest tests are yet to come:

Nadal [2.48] has yet to reach the final of a hard court Grand Slam. The world number one has yet to drop a set but could be tested properly in his quarter-final with Gilles Simon, who beat the Spaniard in Madrid three months ago.

Federer [3.45] needed five sets to overcome Tomas Berdych in the fourth round but three years ago he did the same against Tommy Haas before winning tournament. There has however only been one four-time champion since 1962 and that was Andre Agassi.

Novak Djokovic [8.6] is fairly distant considering he is the reigning champion although not since Jim Courier in 1993 has a first-time winner retained his crown.

Six of the last seven losing finalists have been eliminated prior to the quarter-finals the following year but Jo-Wilfried Tsonga [10.5] is eager to show that last year wasn’t a fluke. The last runner-up to make the final eight the following year was Marat Safin in 2005 and he went on to win it.

Watch Roddick/Djokovic and Del Potro/Federer live free of charge on Betfair just by opening an account. Click here to do that and claim a free £10 bet.

Posted: January 26th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment