Tennis Trading News – Monday 23rd April 2012

It was all or nothing in Monte Carlo on Sunday, as the seven times in succession winner, Rafa Nadal, came up against the man who had beaten him in their last seven matches, Novak Djokovic. And this week seen some amazing Tennis Trading conditions with massive profits on offer.

Monte Carlo Masters

Not many could have foreseen such a comfortable win for Rafa on Sunday afternoon, especially after not having beaten Djokovic for more than 18 months and losing their last two meetings on a clay surface.
The Spaniard was on top of his game all week and failed to drop a set across any of his matches.
The 6-3, 6-1 victory over Djokovic was achieved with minimum fuss and whilst it may not knock the confidence of the Serb to any great extent, it will boost Rafa’s spirits, who hadn’t won a title since he prevailed here 12 months ago.

In terms of tennis trading, Sunday’s final didn’t turn out to be one of the most lucrative of match-ups, but what had gone before certainly did.

I highlighted here last week that the meeting between Murray and Berdych on Friday afternoon had big potential for Tennis Trading League techniques and that regardless of who won the first set, the players were evenly enough matched for the techniques to pay off.

Andy Murray squeezed through the first set on a tie-break, but Berdych was looking strong and confident on his serve, meaning the match was far from over. As the Czech’s serve became more and more dominant, Murray’s confidence began to drain and it wasn’t long before Berdych had completed the comeback with a 2-1 victory. Brilliant trading conditions with massive odds fluctuations seen profits of nearly 200 in just 2 hours. Amazing game.

Saturday’s semi-final between Berdych and Djokovic told a similar tale. This time it was Berdych who took the lead, breaking back from behind in the opening set to win it 6-4. I was concerned that an emotional week for Djokovic may prevent a sustained effort to come back and win the match, but the trading opportunity was there, and right from the start of the second set, it was clear Djokovic had gained the momentum and was well on his way to defeating the World No.6.

The Djokovic v Berdych semi-final, also provided a wealth of opportunities for tennis scalping, particularly in the first set when both men found themselves 15-40 down, but then served well to take the game to Deuce. On both occasions the server then went on to be broken, so the strategy was again proven to be a real winner. A great see-saw match seen profits of over 150 for anyone using Tennis Trading League Strategies.

Looking at the final itself, the only real opportunity I saw for good trading was in laying the favourite before the match.  It may seem like an odd tactic, especially in hindsight, however if you’d layed Nadal before the match, you’d have seen Djokovic win his opening service game and then take a 15/30 lead in Nadal’s first game. At this point, against an opponent he hadn’t beaten on seven previous attempts, Nadal’s odds drifted out and a prompt green out on the trade made a decent profit. Laying the favourite before the match in the right conditions is a very profitable long-term strategy, and can be seen in action on Tennis Trading League.

As always, it’s all about getting out quickly with a profit, and any tennis traders slow to move, wouldn’t have seen green for the remainder of the match. But from this one trade plus three other Scalping opportunities seen profits of way over 100 on this match.

The Week Ahead

We remain on the clay this week and it’s over to Barcelona, where there are some big names in action, including Monte Carlo Marvel, Rafa Nadal.
Nadal is looking to win this event for the seventh time, having succeeded here last year, defeating David Ferrer in the final.
The likes of Andy Murray, Nicolas Almagro, Janko Tipsarevic and David Ferrer will all be out to wrestle the title from the World No.2, but after last week’s stunning success, it’ll be a tough ask for any of them to oust Rafa.
Looking at the schedule for this one, there are some tasty match-ups laying in wait for the week. Nadal and Murray are the top seeds but the Scot’s draw does not look kind and he may have to defeat home players and clay court specialists, Almagro, Ferrer, and Nadal , in succession, if he’s to win this event for the first time.
There is very little that should worry Nadal on his side, but any tennis traders may find it worthwhile looking out for a slow start in his matches, especially early in the week, as he comes in on the back of a busy week in Monte Carlo.

Raonic v Almagro looks like it could be one of the best match-ups of the third round and it’ll be interesting to see how David Ferrer performs against countryman Albert Montanes, following a disappointing performance from the World No.5 in Monte Carlo last week.