Dubai Final

For final to be played today in Dubai, i don't have very much to say. It's pretty clear for me that Roddick is playing very very well an this moment, and has done that throughout the season. He defeated yesterday Novak Djokovic with a very convincing 7-6 6-3. Roddick has yet to lose a set in this tournament.
On the other side, it's a great thing for the Spaniard to reach the final. Ranked 41 in the ATP at the moment, he has proven that he can play well and that he can put up with pressure. He defeated some good players at this tournament, but not nearly as tough as the ones Roddick dismissed.
My guess is that Roddick will win this one.

TIP : Andy Roddick -3 @ 1.66 10units : BET365 : OK +6.6 units

Dubai Semifinals

I was not able to get in time to a computer so i can write about the first semifinal of the day : F. Lopez - N. Davydenko. Lopez managed to get past the Russian 6-4 4-6 7-5 in a disputed match. I must admit that i did not have a clue about who was going to win this match, because both player played well, and made some upsets at this tournament. I was thinking about a 3 setter either way.

The other semifinal to be played today should be even more exciting that the first one : N. Djokovic against A. Roddick. Roddick played great yesterday against Nadal, and also throughout the season, but the thing is that Djokovic played that way all season (maybe even more). I think that at the moment, this is already a big achievement for the American to reach the semifinals, but Djokovic should be motivated by the fact that he can near it on Federer and Nadal if he wins this tournament. I think that Djokovic will win this one.

TIP : Djokovic Vs Roddick : Djokovic -3 to win @1.90 - 5/10 units - BET365 : lost
This means that Djokovic has to win at a total of 4+ games difference in order to win this bet.

Ballance This Week: +3.28 units
Ballance This Month : +3.28 units
Overall Ballance : +3.28 units
Best Won : 2
Bets Made : 3

Started Using PayPerPost

I have also started using payperpost.com in order to earn the money I need to buy my own domain (for this blog, my personal blog and another 2 blogs I intend to start). The difference is a big one between smorty and payperpost, and I am not actually promoting either one. I whould recommend a lot of bloggers to drive traffic to this site, since it can only be good for them.

The difference comes in the money you will get for a post. The thing probably Is that payperpost is an older program, thus attracting more advertisers. More advertisers equals more money for theblogger: quite simple actually. The thing with payperpost was that they had tighter acceptance condition for your blogs. And not a lot of things have changed, my blog was able to squeeze trough the requirements.

The design is very good for this kind of site, and you should have no problems finding whatever it is that you need.

Just like other sites in this branch, you get paid more if you have more traffic, or a higher page rank, but the difference is that there is no administrator to email the available offers, you just select them from the list. You are able to see all the offers available or only the ones that you qualify for. This has its advantages and disadvantages: you can see more offers and select the one you need, but I guess that more general blogs have a lot of qualified opportunities, and it may be hard for them to select the ones that are more profitable for them. But this can be resolved by picking the offers with a higher rating (other bloggers rated the opportunity, so the community is quite good here).

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Dubai Quarterfinals [Part 2]

The third quarterfinal of this tournament will be disputed between Novak Djokovic and Igor Andreev. It's a big performance for the Russian player (Andreev) to reach this stage of the tournament, especially considering his 6-6 record for the year. On the other side, Djokovic is my favorite to win this tournament. Djokovic is 10-2 this season (including a match he retired) and also 2-0 in the head to head meetings. I think it's most likely he will this one in 2 sets.

Andy Roddick will meet Raffael Nadal later today. I think Roddick is in a great form and has shown that here, defeating both J.C. Ferrero and P.H. Mathieu in 2 sets. He lost only 2 matches : one to Robin Soderling (the Swede is playing really well at the moment) and also lost that thriller to Ph. Kohlschreiber at the Australian Open. On the otherhand, Nadal lost a set to the same Kohlschreiber and had some problems with his game. Even tough the head to head is 2-1 for Nadal, i think Roddick has a chance of taking this one.

Tips :
Nadal - Roddick : Roddick to win 4/10@ 2.37 - BET365 OK +5.48 units
Andreev - Djokovic : Novak Djokovic to win 2 - 0 7/10@1.40 OK : +2.8 units

Ballance This Week: +3.28 units
Ballance This Month : +3.28 units
Overall Ballance : +3.28 units
Best Won : 2
Bets Made : 3

Dubai Quarterfinals [Part 1]

The first quarterfinal on the main draw will be the match between Scotland's Andrew Murray and Russia's Nikolay Davydenko.
Murray defeated Federer in the first round and today managed to top Fernando Verdasco despite losing the second set (6-3 3-6 7-6). This is a problem that Murray faces quite often : he loses his focus and even tough sometimes he is still the better player he finds himself unable to add up the points to win the match. I don't think this will be the problem for Murray because the Scott should be aware of the danger that Davydenko poses. These 2 have played 5 times before, the score being currently set at 3-2 for Murray, but i should also add the fact that Murray won the last 3 meetings.
Another positive thing for Murray is that he did not play last week, fatigue not being a problem for him. On the other side, the Russian played 5 matches lost week (lost in the final in Zagreb against Stakhowsky). I am not counting this as a disadvantage for the Russian, because he is the top100 player with the most matches played last year, so he is used to this, i am just saying that Murray should not be tired.
Overall, i think Murray is the better player at the moment and that we is most likely to win this match


The second match to be disputed for a place in the semifinals is the one between third seed David Ferrer and Feliciano Lopez. Even tough Lopez managed to eliminate the eight seed T. Berdych, i think that Ferrer has a lot of confidence building up and that can be seen in the matches he won : 6-3 6-0 against Tommy Haas and a three-setter against Rochus. I think it was just a slip for Ferrer to lose that set against the Belgian and i believe that he will grab this one.

TIP : Ferrer to win 5/10 @ 1.38 - BET365 : LOST

Today i am starting my tips column. Each day i will post some tips on the matches for the next day. I will not consider all the matches, not even all the matches to be played at the tournament(s) i am covering, just the ones that feel good to me.
I advice you to play at BET365 since the bonus you are getting at the moment is nice and they are the best bookie to bet on tennis, and not only.
BET365 is also offering other opportunities to gamble online such as Poker and Casino. You can register with them by following the banners at the end of all my posts.

Current ballance : -5 units
Bets Won : 0
Bets Made : 1

Murray Defeats Federer In Dubai

This week the Dubai Tennis Tournament will be underway. At the "line-up" we found that the 8 seeds were all top 10 players. That was already the making of an interesting week of tennis. But the most interesting match of the first round was the one between Andy Murray (ranked 11'th in the ATP) and Roger Federer (No. 1 in the rankings, and obviously the first seed and also the favorite to win this tournament). It seems that things went well for the Scott, who managed to make a big upset against the player who dominated the circuit for years in a row. Murray won it 6-7 6-3 6-4, losing only 5 points on his first serve and not facing a single break point.
Federer is now 5-2 this season, and is facing the probability that Spaniard Raffael Nadal will near in at 100 points if he wins the tournament. It's Federer's first moment of weakness in years, and this is the making of a great season.
The head to head was 1-1 before this match, with Murray winning their last match-up, in 2006. As an interesting note, Murray won the tournament in Doha, then lost in the first round at the Australian Open, then won in Marseille and lost again in the first round in Rotterdam 2 weeks ago. If this becomes a pattern, the Scott is the favorite to win this tournament.

Santoro managed to perform the second upset of this tournament, defeating Youzhny in the first round 6-3 6-4.

Another interesting match of the first round is the match between Andy Roddick (sixth seed) and J.C. Ferrero. Roddick is 3-0 in the h2h meetings and i think will win this one to make it 4-0.

Spaniard's Raffael Nadal has become now the favorite if we consider the seeds remaining. He will play against Germany's Phillip Kohlschreiber in an interesting duel for the first round.

Right now it's difficult to determine my favorite because of all the good players here, but i think Djokovic should play well recovering from his ilness, Murray is obviously playing well and David Ferrer won his match against Tommy Haas 6-3 6-0. I think i will determine my pick for this tournaments in the quarterfinals, because a lot of good players are here.

Started Using Smorty

I have started using smorty.com as a way to advertise on blogs this week. This is a review service that puts me in connection with advertisers that want a review for their product/service/website. After your blog is accepted (a process that takes 1 day or so), an administrator emails the suitable offers for my blog and then i have the opportunity to accept or remove an offer that is made to me.

I have already written a review (the one about e-commerce) and the post was approved. The system works smoothly. This is great way for bloggers like me to get some money while blogging. Unfortunately, my blog doesn't have great traffic, and the Page Rank is very low, but i am still able to get enough money to continue keeping this blog.
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Another great thing about this service is that even tough they accept "small" blogs like mine, you are paid accordingly with the elements described earlier in this post. If your blog drives more public or if you have a higher page rank, then you will be paid more for your review (which is quite fair in my opinion). It is also very nice that you don't have to make a positive review to the product, you can blog for money while being completely sincere to your audience.

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Week 9 Results

David Nalbandian was defeated by Spaniard Nicolas Almagro in 2 sets : 6-1 7-6, Almagro capturing the Acapulco title. This is the second title this year for Almagro, after the one he won at Costa de Saouipe (Brazil). He is 15-3 this year and holds an impressive 14-1 on clay, his only loss coming as the result of an injury, against Juan Ignacio Chela. Almagro climbed 3 places in the ATP rankings (from No. 28 to No. 25) in his quest to reach the top 20. This is the highest ranking the Spaniard ever held took.
Nalbandian climbed one place to No. 7 in the ATP rankings after his performance here. He is 12-2 this year and 11-1 on clay, this being his first loss on this type of court. He won the tournament in Buenos Aires last week, reaching a streak of 10 consecutive matches.

In Memphis, Soderling lost his second consecutive final. Even so, the Swede is now 10-3 this year, reaching 2 consecutive finals (last week in Rotterdam lost against Llodra), and displaying some good quality tennis. He jumped 21 places in 2 week, from No. 59 to No. 38 in the ATP rankings. My opinion is that he will reach at least the top 20 this year, if no injuries come up.
Steve Darcis won this tournament and he is now 7-5 in major tournaments, jumping 35 places up to No. 46 in the ATP rankings. The Belgian player is more of a Challanger player and it remains to be seen if he is ready for the big show or this was just a happy week for him. I should not bet either way.

Today i will cover the tournament in Dubai, a very interesting tournament to watch.