Well the Vodacom Durban July has come and gone for another year and it’s safe to say it left me a few rand lighter as I was one of the “doubters” who chose to bet against the brilliant filly Igugu.

The day itself was not all doom and gloom though as the rugby results went my way and the big bonus was that I collected on the Wimbledon ladies final between Kvitova and Sharapova as I had backed the former at rather juicy odds of 17/2 two weeks previously.

Now I am a firm believer in doing my research before betting but I had never even heard of Kvitova when Wimbledon started and it is fair to say I would have taken no more than a passing interest in the result had it not been for my colleague Shaun sticking his head into my office on the morning of June the 20^th.

He was clutching a crumbled up piece of paper which it was to turn out carried on it the name of the 2011 Wimbledon Ladies Champion. What price he asked was Kvitova to win the tournament as his 15 year old daughter Cheyenne had assured him that the 21 year old Czech had the game to do it.

The betting markets had closed but that night I put his bet down at odds of 17/2 and naturally I could not resist having a little go myself although deep down I figured it was a donation to the bookmaker’s year end party. Surely a teenager could not find a winner of this magnitude in a field that included the dominant Williams sisters?

I never gave it another thought until I got an e-mail from Shaun saying Kvitova was in the quarters. The next I heard it was a set all in the semifinal and I started taking an interest as she booked her spot against previous winner Sharapova.

She started an underdog in the final but the bet was never in danger as she cruised to a straight sets win giving me an unlikely profit and loads of respect for a certain young ladies tennis knowledge – roll on the US Open in August!

In the meantime though it’s back to studying form for the Super Rugby Final between the Reds and Crusaders although given recent events, perhaps I should just check what my daughter Angela fancies?

This article was written for the CitiGaming supplement of the Citizen Newspaper and was first published on the 7th of July 2011.

Brent Graham is a blogger on www.goodforthegame.co.za and presents a sports betting radio show every Thursday night from 22h00 – 22h30 on 1485AM Radio Today or Channel 169 of the DSTV Audio Bouquet and to get on his free weekly e-mail list just send a message to brent@goodforthegame.co.za titled “Best Bets”.

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