Djokovic, Davydenko win Masters Cup openers

Tennis Betting Lines

11/09/2008 - Shanghai, China (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Novak Djokovic of Serbia and Russia's Nikolay Davydenko were winners Sunday on the first day of play at the Tennis Masters Cup.

The second-seeded Djokovic earned a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro in the first of the Gold Group round-robin matches, before the fourth-seeded Davydenko rallied for a 6-7 (6-8), 6-4, 7-6 (7-0) triumph over France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the second.

Djokovic won a Masters Cup match for the first time, as he lost all three of his round-robin matches last year in his initial appearance at the lucrative season-ending event.

It's been a banner year for Djokovic, who won his first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January and captured Masters events at Indian Wells and Rome.

Del Potro, meanwhile, was making his Masters Cup debut after a great run this past summer vaulted him into the upper echelon of the sport. He was ranked only 65th in July, but a 23-match winning streak that included titles at Stuttgart, Kitzbuhel, Los Angeles and Washington moved him into the top 10.

Djokovic had little trouble on Sunday. After blowing an early break in the first set, he broke del Potro in the 12th game to capture the set. An early break gave del Potro an edge in the second, but Djokovic got it back quickly and another break for a 5-3 lead enabled him to finish off the match in just under two hours.

Davydenko had a much tougher battle with another first-time Masters Cup participant in Tsonga. The young Frenchman won the first-set tiebreak on a Davydenko error, but the veteran Russian squared the match with a backhand winner to break serve in the 10th game of the second set.

Tsonga, who beat David Nalbandian in the title match last Sunday at the Paris Masters to earn his spot in the exclusive eight-man field, then fell behind 2-5 in the third set, but captured the next three games and eventually forced a tiebreak. Davydenko, though, won all seven points to claim the match.

A three-time winner this year, including a Masters crown in Miami, Davydenko's best result in the Masters Cup was a semifinal run in his first appearance back in 2005.

Tsonga won his first ATP title at Bangkok in September when he beat Djokovic in the final to avenge a loss to the Serb in the title match at the Australian Open.

Round-robin play will continue Monday with opening matches in the Red Group, as top seed and two-time defending champion Roger Federer takes on France's Gilles Simon. Simon earned a spot in the field after world No. 1 Rafael Nadal withdrew because of a knee injury and fatigue. The other match in the Red Group will pit U.S. Open runner-up Andy Murray against American Andy Roddick.

Federer is 26-3 lifetime at the Masters Cup and one of only four players to capture the event four or more times (Ilie Nastase, Ivan Lendl, Pete Sampras). The super Swiss is the only former champion in this year's field.

This prestigious eight-man tournament will shift to London next year.

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FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

Trash 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 won’t 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 doesn’t focus only on your opponent’s 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. Where’s 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, don’t 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 won’t be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, I’m 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.








Big East Conference odds

Work left to do: Villanova, Syracuse, DePaul, West Virginia, Providence

Notre Dame and Louisville appear to have done enough to make the move, so we'll make them locks. The Cardinals, despite a modest RPI, are trending way up and have clinched at least a tie for third in the Big East, which should be more than enough with their pair of big road wins. Villanova got back to .500 and gets back to more solid footing. Syracuse got a very important road win and crippled a fellow contender in the process. West Virginia's fate could be in its hands Tuesday at Pitt.

Work left to do:

Villanova [18-9 (7-7), RPI: 21, SOS: 5] Pounded Rutgers to get back to .500. If Cats can get their last two (at UConn, vs. Syracuse), that should be enough with strong computer numbers and a host of wins away from The Pavilion. The Cats have beaten Texas and swept the Big 5 (never easy in Philly), but have a couple of losses to bubble teams (Xavier, Drexel), too. I still think they'll be OK, possibly even at 8-8.

Syracuse [20-8 (9-5), RPI: 53, SOS: 62] History says 10 wins will be plenty, but it might be hard for the Orange to get that last one with a final two vs. G'town, which is trying to win the league title, and at Villanova, which will be desperate for a W. The relative lack of nonconference heft and the weak computer numbers are still concerns, but the Orange have won four in a row and got a very, very big win at Providence on Saturday.

DePaul [16-12 (8-7), RPI: 54, SOS: 18] Beat Cincy and should get past South Florida to get to 9-7, but then what? They have beaten Kansas and Cal (right after the DeVon Hardin injury) earlier this season, but also have lost to Bradley and Purdue, among others. They'll likely need a couple of BE tourney wins, too, but we'll see ...

West Virginia [19-7 (8-6), RPI: 58, SOS: 125] The game at Pitt on Tuesday night could decide the Mountaineers' fate (barring a deep tournament run). They can still get to 9-7 in the Big East without it by beating Cincinnati, but the nine wins would be against UConn, Villanova, St. John's, South Florida, DePaul, Rutgers, Seton Hall twice and the Bearcats. Beating bubble foes is fine, but where's the beef? Outside of beating PG-less UCLA in nonconference play (still a top quality win), there's not a lot to fall back on (besides maybe NC State). WVU vs. Syracuse would be an interesting debate, as the teams don't play in the Big East regular season. WVU has the best win, but Cuse has played the much better schedule.

Providence [17-10 (7-7), RPI: 70, SOS: 33] The Friars likely saw their at-large hopes die at home in the four-point loss to Syracuse, barring an unexpected run to the Big East semis or more. The RPI, bad already, won't be helped by playing St. John's and South Florida in the final two league games.

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For more College Basketball betting lines go to BettingExpress.com

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