Jankovic, Dementieva advance to U.S. Open semis
Tennis Betting Lines
09/02/2008 - Flushing Meadows, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Second seed Jelena Jankovic and fifth seed Elena Dementieva will meet in the semifinals at the U.S. Open after both posted victories on Tuesday.
The Serbian Jankovic, who was ranked No. 1 in the world for one week last month, defeated 29th seed Sybille Bammer of Austria, 6-1, 6-4. Earlier in the day, Olympic gold medalist Dementieva was an easy quarterfinal winner, besting 15th seed Patty Schnyder of Switzerland, 6-2, 6-3.
Jankovic, a semifinalist here two years ago, had just seven winners, but took advantage of 40 unforced errors from Bammer, who was the first mother since Peruvian Laura Arraya Gildemeister at 1991 Wimbledon to reach a Grand Slam singles quarterfinal.
The fifth-seeded Dementieva won her 11th straight match. The Russian moved on in 1 hour, 16 minutes with the help of five service breaks, compared to only one for Schnyder.
The 26-year-old Dementieva is now 10-7 lifetime against the left handed Schnyder, including 2-0 at the U.S. Open, where the Russian prevailed in a fourth-rounder back in 2005.
Dementieva will appear in her fourth U.S. Open semifinal in nine years. She reached the final here in 2004, but lost to fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova.
"It feels much better to win in two sets," said Dementieva. "I remember me being in the final here, but I had such tough matches. It's very tough physically to be ready to play at your best in the final."
The two-time major finalist Dementieva was last month's gold medal winner at the Beijing Games, reached the quarterfinals at the French Open in June, and was a semifinalist at Wimbledon in July.
The other quarters will pit fourth-seeded Serena Williams against seventh- seeded Venus Williams and sixth-seeded Russian Dinara Safina versus 16th- seeded Italian Flavia Pennetta on Wednesday at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
Serena and Venus have advanced to their 24th and 29th Grand Slam singles quarterfinals, respectively. This is the 17th time both sisters have appeared in the quarterfinals of the same Grand Slam event; in a repeat of this year's Wimbledon final, Serena and Venus will take to the court against each other for the 17th time in their careers, with the lifetime head-to-head currently standing at eight wins apiece.
Arlington, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Texas Rangers catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia is out for the rest of the season after suffering a strained muscle in his right forearm during Monday's 12-6 loss to Seattle. In the fifth inning, the catch
<< O's scratch Guthrie from Wednesday start
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Baltimore Orioles scratched Jeremy Guthrie
from his scheduled start against the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday.
No replacement was named.
Guthrie, who is 10-11 with a 3.57 earned run average in 29 starts this
<< Federer sneaks into quarterfinals
Flushing Meadows, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It took more than 3 1/2 hours, but
Roger Federer kept alive his quest for a fifth straight U.S. Open title,
earning a fourth-round, five-set victory over 23rd seed Igor Andreev of
Russia.
<< Senators acquire Shannon from Vancouver for Nycholat
Ottawa, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Ottawa Senators acquired forward Ryan
Shannon from the Vancouver Canucks for defenseman Lawrence Nycholat on
Tuesday.
The 25-year-old Shannon, who helped Anaheim win the Stanley Cup in 2
<< Utah's Eliapo out with foot injury
Salt Lake City, UT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Utah nose tackle Kenape Eliapo is
expected to miss the next six to eight weeks with a left foot injury, coach
Kyle Whittingham announced Tuesday.
Eliapo, who played in all 13 games for the Ut
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Cole Hamels snapped baseball's most shocking winning streak of the season, blanking the Nationals into the eighth inning and keeping the Phillies close in the National League East race with a 4-0 vic
Dodgers' Kershaw brought back up >>
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Dodgers recalled rookie
pitcher Clayton Kershaw from Triple-A Las Vegas to start Tuesday's game
against San Diego.
The 20-year-old was optioned to Las Vegas following his last start, Thursda
Snell, Pirates snap losing streak with victory over Reds >>
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ian Snell threw six innings and the
Pittsburgh Pirates snapped a 10-game skid with a 3-2 victory over the
Cincinnati Reds.
The Pirates, who posted their first win since Aug. 19 at St.
Blue Jays come back to upend Twins >>
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Lyle Overbay's two-run homer in the sixth
inning put Toronto ahead for good and the Blue Jays went on to a 7-5 win over
the Minnesota Twins in the opener of a three-game series.
Jose Bautista hit a two-r
Pedroia, Ortiz lead BoSox to huge win over O's >>
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dustin Pedroia homered and drove in five runs
while David Ortiz finished 3-for-3 and drove in four more as Boston routed
Baltimore, 14-2, in the middle test of a three-game set at Fenway Park.
Jon Lester
Teams that should be in: Michigan State, Indiana
Work left to do: Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Iowa
Behind the big two, the pecking order might be in a bit of flux. Has Michigan State passed Indiana after handling the Hoosiers in East Lansing? Where is Illinois in that mix? What looked like a four-big league last week could be morphing into five -- and even six is not unthinkable at this point if everything breaks right.
Should be in:
Michigan State [21-8 (8-6), RPI: 20, SOS: 15] The Spartans made it four-for-four on the homestand, a gigantic accomplishment that leaves them in extremely good shape. MSU is only 1-6 on the road and is at Michigan and at Wisconsin to close things out, meaning the date with the Wolverines on Tuesday looms very, very large. Beating Texas early will hold up well, as will the rout of Bradley and the win over BYU, but will 8-8 be enough? It very well could be, as the computer numbers are good, but why chance it?
Indiana [18-9 (8-6), RPI: 24, SOS: 32] Hmm ... good thing the last two are at Northwestern and home to Penn State, because IU might want to get both to feel completely safe after dropping its third in the last four, fading after halftime at Michigan State. Who knew the best nonconference win would be over Southern Illinois, which is a gift that keeps on giving for the Hoosiers. The win over Wisconsin also looks good on the mantel.
Work left to do:
Illinois [21-9 (9-6), RPI: 31, SOS: 25] A good performance at Penn State leaves the Illini in pretty good shape. Can they go to Iowa and take care of business to really look on their way? That's a huge game, as there is a possible cluster of teams that will end at 9-7. Illinois beat Bradley, but has lost to Xavier. A 9-7 mark and a semifinals trip in Chicago could be enough with the computer profile hanging in there, but it would be better not to mess around, clinching at least a tie for third.
Purdue [18-10 (7-7), RPI: 47, SOS: 28] Couldn't get it done at Iowa, but did win at Northwestern to put 9-7 squarely in sight. Where does that leave the Boilermakers, though? Even if they beat Minnesota and Northwestern at home, that won't help the computer numbers. Nonconference wins over Virginia, DePaul and Oklahoma are solid, but not spectacular. The Boilers very well might need an upset in the B10 quarters to have a legit claim.
Michigan [19-10 (7-7), RPI: 55, SOS: 53] Well, Michigan did what it needed to do, winning at Minnesota to take control of its fate. The Wolverines have Michigan State and an already-wrapped-up-the-league Ohio State at home to close, so the chances are there. Win both and we can talk. There is no marquee win yet in the profile, and the Wolverines were splattered in several games against name opponents. A mediocre computer profile fueled by a lack of road wins isn't helping, either.
Iowa [16-12 (8-6), RPI: 80, SOS: 64] For the sake of being complete, we'll add Iowa, this season's Stanford. It's plausible that the Hawkeyes could get to 10-6 (at Penn State, vs. Illinois left), but where does that leave them after a gruesome nonconference performance where the best win was over ... Toledo? Iowa State? Cornell?? If they get to 10-6, we can start to look at what they need to do in the B10 tourney, although my gut sense is that they would need to make the final and have knocked off Ohio State or Wisconsin on the way to have any real claim.
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MySportsbook.com: New College Football Clock Rules Examined
Coaches and bettors alike are desperate to make sense of the new time-keeping rules on the NCAA gridiron. One of the big stories to come out of the Ohio State-Texas clash last weekend was Texas coach Mack Brown's criticism of the NCAA's new clock rules that are intended to shorten the duration of college football games, therefore affecting college football betting.
"They scored with six minutes left and the game was over before we had a chance to do anything," Brown told ESPN.com. "I really hope whoever made these changes will go back and look them over."
Sure, it might be sour grapes; the Buckeyes thoroughly trounced the defending national champion Longhorns 24-7. However, Brown isn't alone in giving the changes their due thought. Bettors are also wondering about them, albeit for a completely different reason. Most experts agree that the changes will result in games being shortened by anywhere from 10 to 20 plays. The obvious consequence is lower scores, with more time rolling off the clock during changes of possession. (The Ohio State-Texas game flew well under the total of 52.)
According to research at the online sportsbook MySportsbook.com, more than 18 plays a game disappeared last weekend into thin air. That's a 10-percent reduction. In 2005, a typical game had 168.58 plays. For 2007 already, it's down to 150.26.
As a result, teams combined to gain an average of about 100 fewer yards a game last weekend versus the 2005 openers. Scoring was also down by about 4.5 points (attention Las Vegas sports lines).
Of course, oddsmakers were able to adjust to the changes before the season started. Proof of that came as the over went a balanced 8-9 at My Sportsbook on Saturday.
Other angles to consider:A shorter game should theoretically result in shorter lines. Whereas Team A might have been a 14-point favorite in a 168-play game (last year), if there are 10 percent less snaps in 2007, the line should also be reduced by 10 percent (to 13 or 12.5). Of course, this is an over-simplification of the matter, but something to keep in mind.
Less possessions means a better chance the game will be decided by three or seven points. For example, what might have been a 20-10 final score in 2005 may end at
17-10 in 2007. Granted, a 24-17 game last year might end at 21-17 these days, but the former - a three- or seven-point advantage being preserved as opposed to created - is the most likely scenario.
*UPDATE* - Sept. 25, 2007
New Clock Rules Boon for online bookmakers
By adjusting the time-keeping rules to shorten the duration of college football games, the NCAA hoped to make its product more enjoyable for the fans. While the NCAA's success in this regard is still up for debate, bookmakers couldn't be happier with the results.
"We are seeing a massive jump in college football betting," noted the MySportsbook.com management team. "With all the early Saturday games (12 a.m. ET) ending before the second wave begins (3:30 p.m. ET) - something that didn't always happen before the changes - bettors are now able to re-invest their winnings from the morning session in the afternoon games."
While not all bettors will choose to roll over their winnings, it doesn't take much for an impact to be seen on the bottom line. "Not all of the millions of dollars in morning payouts get re-bet. In fact, it's probably only 10 to 20 percent," noted the sportsbook management team. "Still, the increased football betting lines window will create a ton of growth for us over the course of the season."
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