Australian Open Overview

The first Grand Slam of the season is in the books and thankfully we can say that it was a successful one for The Overrule. Our list of wagers and their outcomes as set out below.

As I stated before the season began the bulk of our profit for the year would come from the outright market and that was very much the case for the Australian Open. We backed Novak Djokovic at 11/10 to begin the men's tournament and apart from his outstanding match with Stanislas Wawrinka in the fourth round, Djokovic was largely comfortable throughout the two weeks. At a set down and three break points down in the final against Andy Murray, it was possible a third successive title in Australia might elude him. After recovering that situation and taking the second set, Novak was the dominant player during the third and fourth sets and eased to victory.

The women's event was where we had our greatest successes of the tournament. We backed Li Na at 22/1 each-way at the outset and Li reached the final without dropping a set. Including a demolition of Maria Sharapova in the last four. Li provided us with ten points profit by virtue of ending up as runner-up, and world number one Victoria Azarenka tacked on another seven points profit for us by winning the event at an inflated price of 7/5 before the semi-finals.

Those of you who follow me on Twitter will no doubt be fully aware what I think of the controversy that the media created for Azarenka, so I won't delve into it on The Overrule too much. I'm sure you're sick of me referring to it on Twitter, as it is. That being said, it was the most disgusting thing I've witnessed in Grand Slam tennis since Martina Hingis was used as a lamb to the slaughter by the French Open crowd in her final against Steffi Graf. My opinion of various tennis journalists couldn't be lower and I would implore you to hold them to higher standards than they appear to set for themselves.

A privilege of having a large readership requires a responsibility for the things a person writes in my view. The players that some reporters so flippantly speak about are human beings, too. Human beings with feelings and emotions and they need not be cast in the same light as criminals for choosing to make on court decisions that are entirely within the rules of the sport. The women's final was tainted by the crowd and the media outlets that inflamed that crowd in the build-up. It has permanently damaged my previously appreciative image of the Australian Open. I'll get over it, but hopefully some lessons were learned by various writers and some self-examination is brought about.

Unfortunately, not for a second do I believe anything will be taken on board, and that the media fascination of bullying high-profile individuals with no thought or mind to the consequences will continue. One can hope, though. If hoping in vain.

This has been a successful start to the season, but there is a long road to travel and we will no doubt experience many bumpy periods on the way. So let's briefly enjoy the success, but tonight we've got to get our heads stuck into the WTA events in Paris and Pattaya for the coming week. The Overrule will have write-ups and selections for both events as the week progresses - stay tuned!

Australian Open performance - Stake: 60.00 Profit/Loss: +23.71 ROI: 39.52%

Season performance - Stake: 61.00 Profit/Loss: +22.71 ROI: 37.23%