Kvitova, Sharapova, Serena reach 3rd round in Oz
Tennis Betting Lines
01/19/2012 - Melbourne, Australia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Second-seeded Petra Kvitova and former Australian Open champions and former world No. 1s Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams posted second-round wins Thursday at the Australian Open.
The Wimbledon and WTA Championships titlist Kvitova advanced, but only after withstanding a test from Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro. The Czech left- hander lost the second set and was down 2-0 in the third before pulling out a hard-fought 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 victory at Melbourne Park.
Kvitova, who will battle Russian Maria Kirilenko on Saturday, advanced despite piling up 48 unforced errors on Day 4.
"In the beginning it was OK, but I made many, many, many mistakes," Kvitova said. "It's part of my game but it's too many. It was very tough to get back in the third set."
Meanwhile, the fourth-seeded three-time major champion Sharapova, who captured her lone Aussie Open title in 2008, won her second straight match by a lopsided 6-0, 6-1 score, this time by besting American Jamie Hampton in just 64 minutes.
Sharapova did not play in any of the Aussie Open tuneup events the last two weeks.
"It was more about getting my feet going," Sharapova said. "Yeah, started my preparations in the offseason a little late, took a bit of extra time in practice instead of rushing into a tournament."
Up next for the Russian bomber will be German Angelique Kerber.
Williams, seeded 12th and seeking a sixth Aussie Open title, cruised in a 6-0, 6-4 defeat of Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova at Laver Arena for her 500th career WTA victory.
The powerful Williams' older sister Venus has also captured 500 wins on the circuit (589-147).
"I knew I had to get there too, because I do everything she does," Williams said of her seven-time Grand Slam champion sister. "It's great, it's like the ultimate."
Serena pulled out of an event in Brisbane two weeks ago due to an ankle injury.
"It's totally fine. It was my good ankle, so I'm good," she said.
The 13-time Grand Slam champion Williams has won her last 16 matches in Melbourne, having titled back-to-back in 2009 and 2010 before missing last year's Aussie because of health issues.
Williams will face Hungarian Greta Arn on Saturday.
Seventh-seeded former Wimbledon and U.S. Open runner-up Vera Zvonareva was also a straight-set winner in second-round action, downing Czech Lucie Hradecka 6-1, 7-6 (7-3), while ninth-seeded former Wimbledon runner-up Marion Bartoli of France leveled long-time Aussie favorite Jelena Dokic 6-3, 6-2.
Zvonareva will play fellow Russian Ekaterina Makarova, while Bartoli will face Chinese Zheng Jie in the round of 32.
Fourteenth-seeded German Sabine Lisicki whipped Israeli Shahar Peer 6-1, 6-2, while Arn outlasted 17th-seeded Slovak Dominika Cibulkova 6-2, 3-6, 10-8, and 18th-seeded two-time Grand Slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova snuck past promising American Sloane Stephens 7-6 (8-6), 7-5. Lisicki will meet the former top-five Russian star Kuznetsova in the third round.
Some other seeds to advance were No. 21 and former Aussie Open runner-up Ana Ivanovic, who handled Dutchwoman Michaella Krajicek 6-2, 6-3, a No. 27 Kirilenko, who held off Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak 6-4, 1-6, 6-2, and a No. 30 Kerber, a 7-5, 6-1 winner over Canadian Stephanie Dubois. The Serbian Ivanovic, a former French Open champ, will meet American Vania King in her next outing.
Some seeds bowed out here on Thursday, as King took out No. 15 Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 5-7, 6-3, 6-4; Zheng defeated No. 23 Italian Roberta Vinci 6-4, 6-2; Makarova ousted No. 25 Estonian Kaia Kanepi 6-2, 7-5; and Italian Sara Errani eliminated No. 29 Russian Nadia Petrova 6-2, 6-2.
Also advancing on Day 4 was Romanian Sorana Cirstea, who survived Pole Urszula Radwanska, 1-6, 6-2, 6-3. Cirstea stunned U.S. Open champion and heavy Aussie favorite Sam Stosur on Tuesday.
The third round will commence Friday, including matches for world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki, third-seeded Victoria Azarenka, fifth-seeded French Open champion and 2011 Aussie Open runner-up Li Na, and 11th-seeded former No. 1 and reigning Aussie titlist Kim Clijsters. The former U.S. Open runner-up Wozniacki will take on 31st-seeded Romanian Monica Niculescu; Azarenka will battle surging German Mona Barthel, who captured her first-ever WTA title in Hobart last week; Li will meet 26th-seeded Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues; and the four-time major champion Clijsters will be opposed by 20th-seeded Slovak Daniela Hantuchova.
Clijsters topped Li in last year's Melbourne finale.
Also on Friday, eighth-seeded Pole Agnieszka Radwanska and 13th-seeded former No. 1 Jelena Jankovic will take to the courts. The former U.S. Open runner-up Jankovic will battle rising American teenager Christina McHale.
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sibling rivalries have always made for great tales. Think Cain versus Abel. Romulus and Remus. Marcia and Jan. So the prospect of brotherly warfare as the backdrop for Super Bowl XLVI should bring some add
<< Djokovic, Murray, Hewitt move on in Melbourne
Melbourne, Australia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Last year's champion Novak Djokovic
and runner-up Andy Murray were among Thursday's second-round winners, as was
home favorite Lleyton Hewitt, who beat an injured Andy Roddick at the
Australian Open.
<< Djokovic, Murray, Ferrer advance at Aussie Open
Melbourne, Australia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Last year's champ Novak Djokovic and
runner-up Andy Murray, as well as fifth-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer, were
each winners on Thursday, advancing to the third round of the Australian Open.
Djokovic
<< Djokovic, Ferrer advance at Aussie Open
Melbourne, Australia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Last year's champ Novak Djokovic and
fifth-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer were both winners on Thursday, advancing to
the third round of the Australian Open.
Djokovic, the tournament's top seed, rolled
<< SDSU escapes The Pit, snaps Lobos' win streak
Albuquerque, NM (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Xavier Thames netted a game-high 22 points,
leading 16th-ranked San Diego State to a 75-70 win over New Mexico on
Wednesday.
Jamaal Franklin finished with 12 points and five rebounds, while Chase
George, South Africa (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nicolas Colsaerts fired a nine-under 64 on Thursday to take the opening-round lead of the Volvo Golf Champions event. He owns a four-stroke cushion after round one at the par-73 Links at Fancour
Rockets aim to move above .500 against reeling Hornets >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Houston Rockets will aim to climb above .500 for the
first time this season when they resume a three-game homestand by hosting the
struggling New Orleans Hornets.
The Rockets won the opener of the residency and their f
Surprising Jazz entertain Mavs in Salt Lake City >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Utah, perhaps the most surprising team in the Western
Conference, will aim to continue its stellar play at home against the reigning
NBA champion Dallas Mavericks.
After starting the season 0-2 the Jazz have rattled off ni
No. 15 Virginia heads south to take on Georgia Tech >>
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - ACC rivals square off in Atlanta tonight, as
the 15th-ranked Virginia Cavaliers tangle with the Georgia Tech Yellow
Jackets.
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its fi
Penn State plays host to No. 22 Illinois >>
University Park, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Off to an ugly start in Big Ten
Conference play, the Penn State Nittany Lions now have to deal with the
arrival of 22nd-ranked Illinois to Happy Valley tonight.
Outside of a 65-45 thumping of Purdue a c
FOOTBALL TRASH TALK
NFL Football Trash TalkTrash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).
Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.
Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).
Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.
Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.
The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.
What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.
Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.
But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.
In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.
Kurt Warner to start, Matt Leinart to watch
Despite the debate that's swirling , Kurt Warner will remain the starting quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals, coach Dennis Green said today. The Arizona Cardinals are the +7 point underdog at online sportsbook MySportsbook.com for this Sunday's game.
Green's comment came in a statement released by the team following an ESPN report that Green decided that rookie Matt Leinart would replace Warner as starter for Sunday's game at Atlanta.
"Generally talking about the starting lineup is not something we do," Green told the AP. "However, given the speculation that was out there we want to make it clear. We're disappointed after last week, but we still expect to be a playoff football team and we fully expect Kurt Warner to be the quarterback that leads us. That has not changed."
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on football needs.