Wimbledon Betting Tips: Kerber and Radwanska to go the distance

Wednesday was a better day for my bets at Wimbledon 2012 with both of my recommended wagers showing a profit.

The overs in Andy Murray's match against David Ferrer was a winner pretty early on as the closely matched pair fought out two tight opening sets.

And my back to lay bet on Ferrer at 32/1 would also have earned a profit as the Spaniard went a set ahead and 5-2 up in the second set tie break, at which point he was available to lay at 1.402/5.

But throughout the latter stages of the second set the lay was readily available for a profit to be made on that one.

So, it's ladies' semi finals day on Thursday at the All England Club and first up at 1pm are Angelique Kerber and Agnieszka Radwanksa who are both in their first ever Wimbledon semi final.

Indeed, this is Radwanska's first Grand Slam semi final appearance after numerous quarter finals, while Kerber reaches another Slam semi following her run to the last four in the US Open last year.

This has all the makings of a tight encounter as their previous four meetings have been shared and all bar their first match, which ended in a retirement, have gone to a deciding set.

Kerber is the slight favourite at around 1.728/11 given her slightly better grass court pedigree, but I don't feel like that represents great value having watched many of her recent matches.

I was not impressed with her response to adversity in her quarter final clash with Sabine Lisicki in which she blew several match points for a straight sets win and then went mentally AWOL for a fair while afterwards.

Lisicki really should have won that match in the end but Kerber's higher percentage play eventually drew the errors out of her German compatriot.

Kerber won't enjoy anywhere near as many errors today from the racquet of Radwanska, whose entire game is built around not making any and this will surely be a long encounter again.

They are yet to meet on a grass court, but this match is pretty much on Kerber's racquet in the sense that she will have to be the aggressor and if she has a day where she doesn't miss, then surely she should progress to her first Slam final.

But I doubt it will be as straightforward as that and the Pole will surely be looking to make a big impression as world number three in her first Slam semi.

I think that Kerber's Achilles heel is her mental strength and it might be worth laying the German if she gets close to the finish line, but the wager I like from the start is to back three sets at around 2.3211/8.

Recommended Bet

Back three sets at 2.3211/8