The Safety Net – Rankings gap makes Hercog a tennis banker
Published:There are fewer opportunities than normal today for the safety net bet with a lack of live sport taking place, but that has not stopped us finding a female tennis winner in the opening round of the Mercury Insurance Open.
With the US Open tennis getting underway later this month, numerous players will be looking to get in some hard-court preparation ahead of arriving at Flushing Meadows.
One of these players is Polona Hercog, who takes on doubles specialist Natalie Grandin in the first round in Carlsbad, California.
Hercog is seeded 18 for the tournament and is positioned significantly higher in the WTA tennis rakings than her South African opponent, who has played sparingly in singles’ matches so far in 2011 with little success.
Although Grandin is better than her world ranking of 645 suggests, she still find 20-year-old Slovenian Hercog too much to handle.
Grandin needed three sets to win both her qualifying matches to reach the opening round in California and was fortunate that her opponent Olga Savchuk could not take advantage of her 12 break points in her latest match.
Hercog is unlikely to be so giving and reached the final of her latest tournament, although this was on the clay in Palermo.
World-ranked 40 Hercog is 1/7 in the tennis odds to beat Grandin and we will be staking £140 on this outcome to fulfil our daily aim of making £20.
The bank balance of the safety net bet is currently in fine shape, particularly after Spain sealed our latest victory on Friday by beating Ireland 5-0 in the semi finals of the European Under-19 Championships in Romania.
Current Status
Bank: £431.50
Today’s stake: £140
Best case scenario: £451.50
Worst case scenario: £291.50
Last Safety Net bet: Spain to beat Ireland @ 4/9
Wealth warning: although we are confident the safety net bet’s strategy will be profitable over a period of time, the nature of sport means we cannot guarantee you will win every single time.
