Bartoli, Sharapova reach second round in Stanford
Tennis Betting Lines
07/28/2010 - Stanford, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Reigning champion Marion Bartoli and former World No. 1 Maria Sharapova were first-round victors Tuesday at the $700,000 Bank of the West Classic tennis event.
The former Wimbledon runner-up Bartoli handled American Ashley Harkleroad 6-1, 6-4 on the hardcourts at Taube Family Tennis Stadium, while Sharapova straight-setted Zheng Jie of China, 6-4, 7-5.
Bartoli, seeded fourth this week, surprised American Venus Williams in last year's Stanford finale and was the runner-up here in 2008. The Frenchwoman lost to Williams in the 2007 Wimbledon final.
In other seeded play: sixth-seeded Shahar Peer of Israel recovered from a slow start to upend Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia, 0-6, 6-4, 6-3; No. 7 Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium downed China's Yung-Jan Chan, 6-3, 6-1; and Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, seeded eighth, cruised past Ayumi Morita of Japan, 6-0, 6-2.
American Melanie Oudin defeated Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak, the 2008 champion, 6-7 (6-8), 7-5, 6-3.
Other first-round winners included Maria Kirilenko, Olga Savchuk and Christina McHale, who ousted Mirjana Lucic, Jill Craybas and Kai-Chen Chang, respectively.
This week's top seeds, both of whom received opening-round byes, are French Open runner-up Samantha Stosur and Russian star Elena Dementieva, who has been sidelined by a calf injury since retiring from her semifinal match against Francesca Schiavone at the French Open early last month. Stosur lost to Schiavone in the finale at Roland Garros.
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Red-hot American Mardy Fish pulled out of the $700,000 Farmers Classic tennis event on Tuesday, citing fatigue and an ankle injury. An eighth-seeded Fish was scheduled to meet German Benjamin Beck
<< Jack Roush hospitalized following plane crash
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jack Roush, co-owner of Roush racing, was
hospitalized Tuesday night following a plane crash at Wittman Air field in
Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Roush was landing his Hawker Beechcraft Premier jet when the crash took
<< Lackey beats old team as Red Sox use late surge
Anaheim, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - John Lackey returned to his former stomping
grounds and pitched 7 1/3 quality innings to lead the Boston Red Sox to a 4-2
win over the Angels in the middle installment of a three-game series.
Lackey (10-5
<< Lackey beat old team as Red Sox use late surge
Anaheim, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - John Lackey returned to his former stomping
grounds and pitched 7 1/3 quality innings to lead the Boston Red Sox to a 4-2
win over the Angels in the middle installment of a three-game series.
Lackey (10-5
<< Uribe, Renteria homer in eighth as Giants nip Marlins
San Francisco, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Juan Uribe led off the bottom of the
eighth inning with a tie-breaking homer off Brian Sanches and Edgar Renteria
added a two-run shot later in the frame, lifting the San Francisco Giants to a
6-4 win
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -The first Taiwanese-American signed by an NBA team hopes to overcome the negative stereotype of playing college basketball at Harvard, and eventually wants to be a minister in an inner-city neighborhood.Undrafted point guard Jer
Magic extend Van Gundy >>
Orlando, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Orlando Magic have extended the contract of
head coach Stan Van Gundy through the 2012-13 season.
The team also announced Alex Martins has been promoted to team president and
Otis Smith to president of ba
Panthers agree to terms with Clausen >>
Charlotte, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Carolina Panthers have reportedly agreed
to terms with rookie quarterback Jimmy Clausen.
According to the Charlotte Observer, Clausen has a four-year deal that could
be worth as much as $6.3 million.
T
McCourty comes to terms with Patriots >>
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New England Patriots and first-round draft
pick Devin McCourty have agreed to terms of a contract.
McCourty's agent, Andy Simms, posted the news on his Twitter feed Wednesday
morning.
Terms of the
Blue Jackets re-sign Stralman >>
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -The Columbus Blue Jackets and defenseman Anton Stralman have agreed on a one-year contract, just minutes before they were to go to arbitration on Wednesday morning.General manager Scott Howson announced the re-signing.Stralman,
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.