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| Halep has been a dream to punt on |
The Queen of tennis punting ONCE AGAIN defied the odds to rake it in for me yesterday with a quite brilliant comeback against nemesis Carla Suarez Navarro. Quite bluntly, Simona Halep has been the biggest winner in terms of a singular betting entity in my entire betting history.
If you want more in depth information regarding why I rate her so highly then scroll through my blog or look at the label down the right hand side for keywords 'Simona' and 'Halep'; but for the purposes of here and now let me continue.
Yesterday she came into the match at around 1.36. But the beauty of Simona is that she is lightening slow out of the blocks most of the time.
This gives punters a clear range of entry points, and mostly you can read her like a book. From 1.36, I took her personally at around 1.75, evens, 2.35, 2.75, 3.25 and finally at around 3.5. She lost the first set, and was down in the second, but this is the interesting thing with Simona; it's only THEN does she start playing. It's literally like she has to play half an hour before she wakes up. Yesterday, she raked in over £200 for me. Over the course of the season, primarily from May, Halep has recorded personal profits of over £1000. This is absolutely staggering.
I'm well open to the possibility that the bubble will burst now and again, and this is why going to the well once to often, especially now if you're into laws of averages, may be a move filled with caution. But there is absolutely no doubt, that Serena aside, Halep can turn a match against anyone.
Click on the table to the left to have a looksie at how Halep has performed since May in Rome.
So what is her edge? The edge comes with not being straight forward, but ultimately winning. She is a slow starter, or indeed loses a set, but the interesting thing is her mental capacity. Yesterday she was out of the door against Navarro and won. She was 3-1 down and 4-2 down in the second set after losing her serve for two consecutive games, but absolutely blitzed Navarro 6-1 in the final set.
Her mental toughness is staggering.
She was a set all against Stosur recently before blitzing her 6-2 in the final set. She was a set down to Bartoli, then won the final set 6-1 again. She was a set down to Hsieh before winning the next two 6-2 6-1. Meusburger; again 6-1 in the final set. The only real jot on the copybook is the Roland Garros match v Na Li, but this match was just insane anyway and I'm not sure anyone knows what happened there (2-6, 6-1, 0-6).
The point is with Halep, is that during her matches she opens up the odds something incredible. The way she starts poorly and grows into a match almost working her opponent out as she goes along has been something that I hope she continues.
A point of caution though. For me she has been first rate for months in a range of circumstances, but please bet on your own back! As mentioned this bubble may burst (although I hope it goes on forever) and so bet responsibly. It may be that this is just a purple patch of a lifetime, and for me, an edge of a lifetime.
