There were 2 matches that really stood out for me on the 1st day of Wimbledon. I wasn’t expecting to trade Roger Federer’s match against Alejandro Falla. However, after Falla took the first 2 sets the market reacted accordingly and Federer’s odds were suddenly an attractive proposition. Getting 2’s, 3’s and 4’s on the defending champion is an opportunity not to be missed. This match had 5 sets written all over it although Federer came very close to losing the 4th set.

The other match I spent time on was Novak Djokovic versus Olivier Rochus. Some people hate betting on the Serb but I do not agree. The erratic nature of Djokovic’s game means there is always the possibility he will drop at least 1 set. Hence, if you bide your time and do not go jumping straight in from the start, you can get very good prices on a player ranked World number 3. The in-play odds made a mockery of his starting price of 1.15.

Against Rochus, Djokovic looked he was about to capitulate in the final set. However, somehow he found his game when he needed it most like many top players do. All things considered, this was a pretty good start to Wimbledon tennis trading. Roll on the next 2 weeks!

I must confess, there are occasions when I do something that could be considered risky. All successful tennis traders know the big money changes hands on the player who is odds-on. However, time and again we see a strong favourite get off to a slow start. The market is not dumb. If a player appears to be losing the plot, the trader will drop them like a cold bag of sick.

In these scenarios, the prices can gain such momentum that they move too far, too quickly. This throws up a unique opportunity to engineer a trade on a pre-match favourite at over-inflated odds. Unlike some traders, I do not consider these trades to be of high-risk if they are instigated early enough in the match.

When you have been trading tennis for a few years, you get to know the strengths and weaknesses of the players. In most cases, you will have a very good idea beforehand what the likely results will be. This means you can hold your nerve and back your judgement when everyone else is cutting out at a loss. This is a technique that can be used in certain scenarios.

Trading tennis is not clouded by patriotism very often if you are from the UK. However, now that Andy Murray is on the scene I must admit I have to keep a lid on things if I am trading one of his matches. That said the Australian Open final featuring Federer and Murray was always likely to end in one way. I say this with no disrespect towards Murray.

Federer just oozes class and will probably smash all records before calling it a day. This guy has won me some coin over the years so it is hard not to like the bloke. After an indifferent period where Nadal rose to world number 1, Federer now looks well and truly back to his old self. That means adding to his collection of grand slam tournament wins.

As far as Murray is concerned, it is only a matter of time before he wins a grand slam. People forget he is still only 23 years old. He can look forward to contesting the major events for at least the next decade. Federer will have to retire at some point so Murray is a potential world number one. I never thought I would be saying that about a British tennis player.

Thank heavens the Australian Open is out of the way. Beautiful country and great people however, staying up half the night to trade tennis on does not go down well with the missus.