Betfair Official Blog

Djokovic bottles it and the worst women's final in a long time

Sean Calvert talks us through the final weekend's action and takes a much-deserved rest

The less said about the ladies final the better. Henin walked it in straight sets, playing superb tennis and giving poor Sveta no chance whatsoever and giving me no chance whatsoever to profit on my wager.

Finals night began with the usual nonsense in the name of hype and 'entertainment'. This year it was a wired looking Liza Minelli banging out God Bless America on court, accompanied by a suited pianist and a troupe of soldiers, unfurling the star spangled banner underneath an air force fly-by.

In the studio, Annabel Croft was looking her glamorous best and Rusedksi's grin had reached a width of Julia Roberts proportions, as he recalled his own participation on the corresponding day a decade ago.

Back on court, Federer arrived in the all black gear and Djokovic patriotically decided upon the red, white and blue of Serbia.

For the second consecutive night I was holding a wager that looked highly unlikely to come in, and I desperately required Djokovic to start strongly and he was the first to find break points, at 5-5 in the opener.

Federer put a forehand long on the second break point and the New York crowd, who have really taken to the Serb and included Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman, went wild when Novak went 40-0 up and had three set points.

He couldn't take advantage of them though and wasted five set points in total. Surely he would be made to pay for his profligacy in the resulting tie-break?

He would and you can't expect to beat Roger Federer if you throw away golden opportunities such as the Serb did. Djokovic's racquet hit the floor, as did my spirits when a double fault gave the set on a plate to the Swiss.

It was a similar story in the second set, as Djokovic had two set points at 6-5, but again he failed to convert and again it ended the same way as the first, in a tie break win for Federer.

Same again in the third, as Djokovic had three consecutive break points at 2-2, but failed again and both the Serb and myself were done.

Game over and the male and female world number one's had delivered and it meant that I failed to make a bean from picking a 36-1 finalist and a 50-1 finalist, which seems a bit harsh.

So, it's all over for another year and it just leaves the annual awards, which are as follows: -

Worst temperament award - Stanislas Wawrinka (runner-up Novak Djokovic)
Worst outfit - Bethanie Mattek's tiger print shocker
Best outfit - Agnes Szavay's little white dress
Best match - James Blake v Fabrice Santoro
Best commentary - Peter Fleming
Worst commentary - Sam Smith & 'Rick' from US TV (impossible to split them)
Most graceless loser - Serena Williams
Dullest personality award - Roger Federer, Nikolay Davydenko, Justine Henin
Scruffiest player - David Ferrer
The 'my, haven't you grown?' award - Marcos Baghdatis & Bethanie Mattek