Indian Wells Qualifying Rounds

     I made the mistake to trade the qualifying rounds of the master series of the year. Why was it a mistake ? First of all the liquidity in most of the matches was below acceptable, second the official scoreboard is very slow, around 10 seconds behind. Found myself in a lot of situation where the player that i was backing already lost the point before the scoreboard updated the results.

     Some interesting matches: Cirstea vs Lisicki. Starting odds were in the favor of Lisicki, in my opinion the odds were about right, romanian player has a lot of potential, but she's going through some poor form for a long time. Cirstea started the match took the first game comfortable, the when reciving she had 30-0. By the way market was moving, I thought it's already 40-0 so I rushed to back the romanian at 1.8. It was actually 30-15, then Lisicki held serve, and since then first set was going in one side only. Second set started the same way Cirstea struggling to hold serve, Lisicki looked more comfortable. I got out at 3-3, for a -350 red. Lisicki serve two times to win the match at 5-4 and 6-5 but was broken every time. They went to tie break and there i backed Cirstea again. She took the second set, then in the third set she took the first two opening games and i reduced my red to -30.

     Cirstea vs Puig went pretty much after the same pattern like the previous match. Cirstea struggling in the first set, then after some decent holds in the second set i backed her, and again she took the lead in the third set.

     Van der Merwe vs Ebden. I remember the south african from Johannesurg, he's a very limited guy, some decent forehand, good serving, some serve and voley, he's not bad, but nothing special. Ebden took a first tight set, and in the opening game of the second set Van der Merwe broke serve and had 30-0 on his own service. That was my entry point, but again scoreboard was slow and it was actually 30-15 when my bet was matched. Ebden broke immediately and since that time i never had the change to make profit. I had an opening in one game where the south african had some break opportunities and i could reduce my red.

     Cornet vs Manasieva this one was a break feast. Manasieva lost her serve three times every set, Cornet 2 times in the first set and three times in the second. So my strategy here was pretty simple: lay the server.

     It looks like i made some decent profits for three days of trading but I could have easily end with -1k red. Traded like a newbie in a lot of situation, the match was going against me and instead of tacking action reduce my red I was just sitting there waiting for my player to turn the situation in my favor. This is not trading ... this is gambling. A lot of matches ended with a huge red because i followed this pattern which is uncharacteristic for my style of trading.