Top seeded Jankovic falls in Montreal

Tennis Betting Lines

08/17/2010 - Montreal, QC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Iveta Benesova, a qualifier from the Czech Republic, upended top-seeded Jelena Jankovic, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, Tuesday at the $2 million Rogers Cup, a U.S. Open tune-up. The event is being played on the hardcourts at Uniprix Stadium.

The former world No. 1, who had reached the final in this event in Toronto in 2007, Jankovic had an opportunity to claim the first set while serving with a 5-3 lead. However, Benesova broke Jankovic and held serve to even the match and eventually force the tiebreak.

Benesova, playing in her first event of the 2010 U.S. Open Series, held serve twice and broke Jankovic again to move in front, 3-0, in the second set. The Serbian closed to within 4-3, but Benesova broke Jankovic again and then served out the match to move into the third round.

Benesova had been winless on Canadian hardcourts in two prior tournaments and had been victorious only twice on hardcourts this season before dispatching Jankovic, the 2008 U.S. Open runner-up.

Meanwhile, form held throughout the day for the rest of the seeded players, as eighth-seed Vera Zvonareva had a much easier go of it in advancing to third round with a 6-2, 6-1 victory of Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan. The Moscow- born Zvonareva was the runner-up to Serena Williams at Wimbledon last month.

Ninth-seeded Li Na of China came back to win the final six games of the second set to dispose of Australian qualifier Jarmila Groth, 6-3, 6-2, to move into third round action.

In first round play, tenth-seeded Victoria Azarenka resumed her recent winning ways with a 6-1, 6-1 opening-round spanking of Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko. The world No. 13 Belarusian titled in Stanford three weeks ago and has now won six of her last seven matches. She dropped her opener in Cincinnati last week.

Former top-five Russian star Svetlana Kuznetsova was a 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 first- round victor over fellow Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on Tuesday. The 11th-seeded Kuznetsova, like has Azarenka, has won six of her last seven outings, including a title in San Diego just two weeks ago.

In other opening-round play involving seeds, No. 15 Italian Flavia Pennetta topped Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova 6-0, 7-5, No. 17 Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli blitzed Canadian wild card Valerie Tetreault 6-1, 6-0, and No. 18 Russian Nadia Petrova held off Czech Lucie Safarova 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.

An all-American first-rounder saw Bethanie Mattek-Sands drive out fellow Fed Cup teammate Melanie Oudin, 6-1, 6-4. The qualifier Mattek-Sands will meet last week's Cincinnati champion Kim Clijsters in the round of 32. The former world No. 1 Clijsters, the reigning U.S. Open champ, is seeded fifth here this week.

Meanwhile, Russian Maria Kirilenko leveled Slovak Dominika Cibulkova 6-0, 6-3 and resurgent Hungarian Agnes Szavay snuck past Argentine Gisela Dulko 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7-3) in round one.

Additional opening-round wins came for Russians Alisa Kleybanova and qualifier Ekaterina Makarova, Japan's Kimiko Date Krumm and Chinese Zheng Jie.

This week's winner will earn $350,000.

Sauclub Tennis Betting News

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Super Bowl XLIII Betting Odds

Super Bowl XLIII, the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Super Bowl XLIII is now set, the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers will meet each other on February 1st in Tampa's Raymond James Stadium to battle it out for the coveted Lombardi Trophy. The game kicks off at 6:00pm ET on NBC with announcers Al Michaels and John Madden covering the on-field action. Super Bowl XLIII betting odds at online bookmaker MySportsbook.com have the Steelers listed as an early -6.5 against the spread favorite.Super Bowl XLIII Betting Odds

Pittsburgh earned their passage to the big game by beating their division rival, the Baltimore Ravens, 23-14 in yesterday's AFC Championship Game. The Steelers jumped on Baltimore early, building a 13-0 first half lead, and never let up on their way to a fairly easy win. Although the Ravens did close to within two points in the fourth quarter, it never appeared as if they had enough offense to pull off the upset.

The Steelers dominating defense held Baltimore to a total of 198 yards while allowing them to convert just three third downs in 13 attempts. Pittsburgh also forced quarterback Joe Flacco into three interceptions, one of which safety Troy Polamalu returned fourty yards for a touchdown.

The Cardinals, by far the playoff team with the longest odds to reach Super Bowl XLIII, did so yesterday with a 32-25 upset of the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship. Arizona charged out of the gates and built a 24-6 halftime lead that had the Eagles venerable defense reeling. Quarterback Kurt Warner and wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald did most of the damage, connecting on three first half touchdowns.

Arizona, however, could not sustain their momentum and the Eagles took a 25-24 with 10:45 left to play in the fourth. The Cardinals, with the franchise's first Super Bowl appearance hanging in the balance, mounted a fourteen play, 72 yard touchdown drive that consumed 7:52 off the clock. Warner hit running back Tim Hightower on a short screen for the go-ahead, game clinching score that will forever live in Cardinal infamy.

MySportsbook.com's Super Bowl XLIII Betting Odds:

Pittsburgh Steelers -6.5 (-110), Over 46.5 (-110), -260 (Money line)

Arizona Cardinals +6.5 (-110), Under 46.5 (-110), +220 (Money line)

Matt Foust won both of his conference championship plays yesterday and he is ready to serve up plenty of Super Bowl action. Each individual play costs $15.00, however, MySportsbook.com recommends purchasing Matt's NFL Playoff Package which includes all of Matt's Super Bowl props and picks from just $45.00.

Get free Super Bowl XLIII Betting from top rated online sportsbook MySportsbook.com. Mysportsbook.com online Super Bowl betting with credit cards

SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

To visit this sports book go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.