08/28/2008 - Flushing Meadows, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two-time champion Venus Williams and Olympic silver medalist Dinara Safina were easy second-round winners Thursday at the U.S. Open.
The seventh-seeded Williams waltzed past 32-year-old Rossana De Los Rios of Paraguay 6-0, 6-3 on Day 4 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. De Los Rios, the mother of an 11-year-old daughter, never enjoyed even one break-point chance en route to the predictable defeat.
Williams moved on in one hour after converting on a fifth match point and will face 27th-seeded Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko in a third-rounder this weekend. Bondarenko blitzed German Sabine Lisicki 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 to advance.
The 28-year-old Williams is a seven-time major champion, including back-to- back U.S. Open titles in 2000 and 2001. She also had runner-up finishes here in 1997 and 2002.
Williams captured a second straight, and fifth overall, Wimbledon title last month.
A sixth-seeded Safina blew past Italian Roberta Vinci 6-4, 6-3. The Russian is the hottest player in women's tennis, having reached the final in six of her last seven tournaments and winning three titles. She was the French Open runner-up to Serbian Ana Ivanovic back in June and the runner-up to fellow Russian Elena Dementieva at the Beijing Games earlier this month.
Up next for the surging Safina will be Swiss Timea Bacsinszky, who moved on by dousing Taipei's Yung-Jan Chan 6-3, 6-2.
Another top-10 victor was Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska, as the No. 9 seed got past Colombian Mariana Duque Marino 6-0, 7-6 (7-3).
Seventeenth-seeded Frenchwoman Alize Cornet topped American Bethanie Mattek 7-6 (7-5), 6-1, while 18th-seeded Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova drubbed Romanian Ioana Raluca Olaru 6-2, 6-2 and 19th-seeded Russian Nadia Petrova pasted Taipei's Su-Wei Hsieh 6-4, 6-2.
An upset came when France's Severine Bremond bounced 20th-seeded Czech Nicole Vaidisova 7-5, 6-3.
<< Report: Goodell reinstates Adam Jones
Dallas, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has reportedly
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The Dallas Morning News reported Thursday that Goodell had granted the former
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<< Georgetown extends women's hoops coach Williams-Flournoy
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Georgetown has signed head women's
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<< Yankees demote Robertson
Bronx, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Yankees have optioned pitcher David
Robertson to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and recalled pitcher Alfredo
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Tampa, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have signed defensive
end Patrick Chukwurah to an undisclosed contract.
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appeared in nine games last seaso
Goodell reinstates Adam Jones >>
Dallas, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has reinstated
cornerback Adam Jones.
Goodell granted the former Titans cornerback his reinstatement on Thursday,
clearing the way for Jones to return to the field, this t
Rocky Mountain rivals square off in rare Friday fixture >>
Salt Lake City, UT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Colorado Rapids and Real Salt Lake
resume their Rocky Mountain rivalry on a rare Friday night Major League Soccer
fixture at Rice-Eccles Stadium this week.
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Curlin makes Saratoga debut in Woodward Stakes >>
Saratoga Springs, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Reigning Horse of the Year Curlin
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Broncos deal G Holland to Dallas >>
Englewood, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Denver Broncos have traded guard Montrae
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NFL Draft.
Dallas was in need of a guard after Kyle Kosier suffered a foot injur
Rule No. 1 in the gamblers' handbook states, "Avoid sports betting on meaningless games."
When you're drowning in a sea of baseball monotony, however, things change. Even a hint of pro football betting can persuade the most disciplined bettor to break a few rules.
The NFL preseason is around the corner, with a tempting Hall of Fame match kicking off on Sunday. But bettors must stay vigilant. Wagering on NFL exhibition games is an entirely different beast than the regular season. Most fans don't recognize the players on the field because starters get as much action in August as Warcraft fans get on Prom night.
The only certainty about the NFL this time of year is uncertainty – and yet there are some who say betting in August can be a gold mine.
“I actually feel the NFL preseason presents solid profit opportunities for sharp bettors and handicappers,” Sports Expert Steve Merril explains. “My experience has been that the sportsbooks fear the preseason, which is evident by lower limits and massive moves.”
The line moves are attributed to the limited knowledge available regarding playing-time distribution. One team’s top unit out on the field for one more series has an impact on the pointspread. Setting lines in the preseason often is a shot in the dark.
“We base the betting lines mostly on public perception,” Pete Korner, founder of the Sports Club in Las Vegas, says. “It’s very tough to predict, almost a guessing game.”
The preseason is all about figuring out who’s in and for how long.
“It becomes a race between bettors and oddsmakers to find out how long the quarterbacks are going to stay in,” Korner admits. “If a sharp gets the information first, he could exploit an early line. I’m a full believer in moving the line in the preseason if the books find out something late in the week.”
Determining what each team’s motive is can help bettors handicap. To do this you must pay close attention to the philosophies head coaches employ in exhibition play.
“You need to know what a coach is trying to accomplish,” says Covers Expert Bryan Leonard. “Sometimes a new coach will want to instill a winning attitude. Others just want to make sure their starters don’t get hurt."
So how do you distinguish who’s playing scared and who’s playing for keeps?
“Head coaches on the hot seat or new coaches trying to implement a winning attitude usually try harder to win in the preseason,” Merril says.
Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel fits this criteria. He’s entering his third season as the sideline boss and has yet to lead the Browns to more than six wins.
Cleveland is an enticing bet as well because of the unresolved quarterback situation. General manager Phil Savage sacrificed the Browns’ first-round pick in next year’s draft for Brady Quinn, but the former Notre Dame quarterback hasn’t signed or reported to training camp yet.
Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson split time at QB last season and it looks like either player (or even Quinn) could be the opening-day starter.
“If a team has quarterback depth and the pecking order hasn’t been decided, it’s a big advantage,” Leonard says.
Even in the third week of the preseason when starters generally play the most, the final outcome of the game is in the hands of fringe players. A team's talent, all the way down to the last man on the roster, is something to consider.
The New England Patriots have long been considered one of the deeper teams in the NFL and coach Bill Belichick has said in the past he’s unafraid of stars getting hurt in games with nothing on the line. He shocked his colleagues in 2003 by playing some of his starters on special teams in the preseason.
“We want to have the team ready to play a tough, physical game and preparation has to go into that and I imagine a certain amount of injuries go with it,” Belichick told the Providence Journal in August 2003.
Bettors can only hope to find more teams that share the Pats' business-like approach to the preseason (New England is 17-9-3 against the spread since 2000) and take advantage of teams who detest the exhibition schedule.
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