Broad in bother, Beck dumped, Halep battles

Controversy in the England match yesterday as Stuart Broad failed to 'walk' after a blatant edge to the slip. This has undoubtedly added much more needle to the Ashes Series, but there is split opinion as to whether Broad is an out and out cheater or whether he is just playing within the rules; that is that the umpire has the final say and that you take the umpires verdict at all times both good and bad. A certainty though, is that Broad can never again be anguished by umpire decisions as this would be the ultimate in hypocrisy.

Annika Beck got dumped out the Budapest event by Meusburger which completely opens the door for Simona Halep to claim a third career title. Her rise in the last few months has been nothing short of meteoric and as form horses go, she certainly is up there. So much so that bookies are now offering Serena-like odds to defeat her opponents. It may be worth taking tournament bets with her perhaps after the third round stages. I got on her to win this at around 1.85 which gives a decent return; she has two games to go.

Paire crashed and burned (again) this time at the hands of Hanescu. A seriously over-rated player is Paire who the bookies seem to have a love affair with. Dimitrov turned up to beat Juan Monaco in straight sets and the final of the Newport event will be contested between Mahut/Russell and John Isner/Lleyton Hewitt. Russell defeated Igor Sijsling last round who was, how can I put it, simply awful.