OTW Extra Email Archive - March 2018
Young guns go for it (the 100/1 quest continues)…
Thursday 15th March 2018
In your Ones to Watch EXTRA email today:
The 100/1 quest continues…
The last OTW Extra email I wrote to you was titled, Go after a 100/1 winner at the Masters…
Indian Wells is the first of this month’s two big ‘Masters’ events. Miami is the other and starts next week.
So far, the 100/1 upset is still on…
In that aforementioned email, I suggested that our Ones to Watch lists could provide some pointers for finding big-price players to follow in Indian Wells and Miami.
We’re approaching the business end of Indian Wells and some of the young players we’ve had our eye on in recent times are making their mark…
Young guns go for it…
In the Men’s event, Hyeon Chung is through to the quarter finals.
It’s new versus old there, with 21-year-old Chung set to take on 36-year-old Roger Federer. Chung has just this month hit a career-high ranking of No.26 in the world. Federer has returned to top spot to become the oldest No.1 in ATP history.
Chung was 50/1 at the start of Indian Wells. He appeared on our pre-season Ones to Watch in 2018 list.
He also made it to the Australian Open semi finals as a 500/1 rank outsider in January, before retiring injured after one set v Federer.
This is no overnight phenomenon. Tennis prodigies don’t just appear out of nowhere. It takes time…
In fact, Chung’s very first appearance in these pages was back in the spring of 2015, when I flagged up the then-teenager as one to follow in the French Open qualifying rounds. On that occasion, Chung lost his very next match 6-0, 6-1…
Fast forward two-and-a-half-and-a-bit-years later and the South Korean is now approaching the Top 20 and starting to become a regular in the latter stages of big tournaments.
In the Women’s Indian Wells event, two of the youngsters from our Ones to Watch in 2017 list have also been doing very well…
Naomi Osaka has won five matches in a row to break through to the semi finals – taking out established names Maria Sharapova, Agnieszka Radwanska and current World No.5 Karolina Pliskova.
Still only 20 years of age, Osaka is coming on leaps and bounds right now. Her 2017 season was marred by injury; she’s now looking very good indeed.
Osaka was as big as 125/1 on day one of Indian Wells. She’s now 4/1 and will take on World No.1 Simona Halep for a place in the final.
And in the WTA Indian Wells quarter finals, another of our ‘class of 2017’ is doing great, too. Daria Kasatkina won her first tour title last year and already this season she has made a semi final and a final. The 20-year-old Russian was 80/1 at the start of Indian Wells.
I’m telling you all this because…
If you’re not backing these players and keeping an eye out for them in the weekly tournaments – you should be.
If I had a crystal ball or a time machine, I’d tell you the exact days and tournaments when we should snap up those big prices….
But in lieu of such fantastical technologies, I do my best to point out the young & upcoming players, underdogs & outsiders and form or performance-potential players – in your free Ones to Watch EXTRA emails, lists and reports, week by week, throughout the year.
I’ll be back next week. We’ll be looking at the next Masters event, the Miami Open.
Enjoy the tennis…
Best wishes,
Tom Wilson