Wozniacki cruises into second round at U.S. Open

Tennis Betting Lines

09/01/2010 - Flushing Meadows, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top-seeded Dane Caroline Wozniacki had no trouble advancing through to the second round at the 2010 U.S. Open, while former world No. 1s Jelena Jankovic and Maria Sharapova were also among Tuesday's first-round winners.

Wozniacki, who can become the top player in the world with a win in this tournament, needed just 61 minutes to breeze past American Chelsey Gullickson 6-1, 6-1.

Fresh off a title in New Haven, Wozniacki is looking to build off last year's runner-up finish at the U.S. Open to Kim Clijsters. She will next face Kai- Chen Chang, who beat Carla Suarez Navarro 6-2, 6-4.

The fourth-seeded Jankovic went the distance to sneak past Romanian Simona Halep 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

Jankovic moved on in 2 hours, 20 minutes, despite piling up 48 unforced errors in a sloppy match on a very hot day in New York. On-court temperatures soared well over 100 degrees. The promising 18-year-old Halep actually served for the match.

"It was a tough match," Jankovic said. "It was, you know, my first match here. For me, those first matches are always the toughest. It was really hot and windy."

Jankovic, who was the 2008 U.S. Open runner-up to American great Serena Williams, will face Croat Mirjana Lucic in the second round.

Sharapova, the 14th seed, avoided the upset with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 victory over Jarmila Groth. The three-time major champion and 2006 U.S. Open titlist has not advanced past the third round here since her win and has failed to make a quarterfinal at a Grand Slam event since the 2009 French Open.

"(Groth) came out there today and really swung and didn't give me much time to do anything out there," Sharapova said. "She served really well in the first set, and I wasn't returning that well. She was quite difficult to get a rhythm in the beginning, but I just hung in there. In tennis, you have three sets to play."

Former U.S. Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia joined Jankovic and Sharapova in the second round with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 decision against 39-year- old Japanese Kimiko Date Krumm. Kuznetsova prevailed in just under two hours on the Grandstand Court.

The two-time major champion Kuznetsova, seeded 11th at this particular fortnight, titled here in Flushing in 2004.

Also advancing was seventh-seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva, who rolled over Zuzana Kucova 6-2, 6-1. Zvonareva is coming off her best performance at Grand Slam, finishing as runner-up to the injured Serena Williams at this year's Wimbledon. She has never advanced past the fourth round here.

A big upset came when Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko upended eighth-seeded Chinese Li Na 2-6, 6-4, 6-2. The big-hitting Li was an Australian Open semifinalist back in January.

Another upset was recorded when Andrea Petkovic toppled 17th-seeded Nadia Petrova 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4). Petrova was coming off a runner-up finish to Wozniacki in last week's Pilot Pen Tennis event at New Haven.

Ninth-seeded Pole Agnieszka Radwanska rolled past Spaniard Arantxa Parra Santonja 6-4, 6-3, while 15th-seeded Belgian Yanina Wickmayer mauled Russian Alla Kudryavtseva 6-1, 6-2. Wickmayer was a surprise semifinalist here a year ago.

Eighteenth-seeded Aravane Rezai of France advanced with a 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (9-7) victory over Slovakian Magdalena Rybarikova.

Other seeded winners on Day 2 were No. 22 Spaniard Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, No. 23 Maria Kirilenko, No. 25 Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru and No. 31 Kaia Kanepi.

A mild upset came when once-promising Austrian Tamira Paszek overcame 26th- seeded Czech Lucie Safarova 2-6, 7-5, 6-2. Another mild upset came in the form of Lourdes Dominguez Lino, who beat 30th-seeded Yaroslava Shvedova 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.

Also reaching the round of 64 were the aforementioned Lucic, Swiss veteran Patty Schnyder, Chinese Peng Shuai, Austrian Yvonne Meusburger, Poland's Urszula Radwanska, German Julia Goerges, Taipei's Yung-Jan Chan, Latvian Anastasija Sevastova, American Beatrice Capra, Czech Iveta Benesova, and Swede Sofia Arvidsson.

Other winners on Tuesday included Akgul Amanmuradova, Dominika Cibulkova, Sabine Lisicki and Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

The 2010 U.S. Open champion will earn at least $1.7 million.

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Football Betting

NFL Football Betting Online

The San Francisco 49ers (5-11 SU, 5-10-1 ATS in 2007; 1-1 SU & ATS in pre-season) found some offensive life last week, and they will try to build some momentum on Thursday night as they travel to the Windy City to take on the Chicago Bears (7-9 SU & ATS in 2007; 0-2 SU, 0-1-1 ATS in pre-season) in an NFL matchup that is set to get underway at 8 PM ET at Soldier Field (natural turf) in Chicago.

Thursday, August 21

NFL betting odds: CHICAGO -3 (-120), Total 37

NOTABLE STAT: San Francisco was last in points, last in total offense in 2007
KEY NFL BETTING TREND: SF has lost its last seven SU on pre-season road

In the BetUS NFL pre-season football betting odds, the Bears are listed as a three-point favorite (laying -120), with the total posted at 37 points.

Here are some NFL football betting trends as they relate to this matchup (reflecting numbers going into the 2008 season):

* SF has lost 11 of its last 14 games SU
* SF has covered three of its last 11 games
* SF has lost six of its last seven road games SU
* SF has covered one of its last seven road games
* CHI has covered five of its last eight games
* CHI has played five of its last seven games OVER the total
* CHI has covered four of its last 13 home games
* SF has lost its last seven pre-season road games SU
* CHI has covered two of its last seven home pre-season games

Well, I guess we should congratulate the Bears on making their quarterback choice for the season's opening game, as they have designated Kyle Orton the starter against Indianapolis. The Bears obviously have lost patience with Rex Grossman, and what they do with him at this point is anybody's guess. But suffice it to say that there isn't a quarterback competition anymore, at least in training camp.

Meanwhile, the quarterback competition may also be settled in San Francisco, where the Niners bounced back from a lackluster 18-6 loss to the Raiders, in which they turned the ball over four times, to execute a 34-6 rout of the Packers last Saturday. However, coach Mike Nolan has stopped short of saying that, insisting that the job is still open. But J.T. O'Sullivan, the longshot of the trio of Niner signal-callers who opened camp, will start his third straight pre-season game here. Against Green Bay, O'Sullivan was only 8-for-17, and was intercepted, but he also threw for 9.1 yards an attempt, which included a 59-yard TD pass to Josh Morgan. The others struggled.

Some offensive cohesion is badly needed, in light of the Niners' dismal 2007 campaign, in which they were dead last in the NFL in scoring, with just 13.7 points a game. And O'Sullivan is the guy who is most familiar with offensive coordinator Mike Martz's exacting system, because he learned it last year in Detroit. O'Sullivan will go at least the entire first half and may even last longer. He'll be relieved by Alex Smith, with Shawn Hill doing the mop-up work. Three receivers who were out last week - Bryant Johnson, Ashley Lelie and Arnaz Battle - will miss this game too.

That may hurt a little here, especially since the Bears will be using a lot of their defensive starters. And it's the defense that has been keeping the Bears in games thus far. In fact, the defense and special teams were responsible for the first 19 points Chicago scored against Seattle last time out, as the offense really struggled with Grossman at the controls. But maybe the first-team offense has a chance to settle a little bit as it works more with Orton at the helm.

Certainly we have concerns about the Bears' offensive line, but we like the scenario for them here, especially if O'Sullivan doesn't make some bis plays. The Niners may have nowhere else to turn right now, and they have lost seven straight road games in the pre-season. Let's take Chicago, the three-point favorite in the NFL football betting odds.

CHICAGO -3 (-120) **
(Graded on a scale of 1-4 stars)

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