Blake, Hewitt and Safin all survive in Las Vegas

Tennis Betting Lines

03/02/2007 - Las Vegas, NV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top seed and defending champion James Blake advanced to the quarterfinals in unusual fashion, while second-seeded Australian Lletyon Hewitt and third-seeded Russian Marat Safin survived hard fought three-set matches at the $416,000 Tennis Channel Open.

Blake was leading 6-1, 3-1 when his opponent, Juan Martin del Potro, retired because of breathing problems. Tournament rules state that games won or lost in a walkover do not count, meaning that Blake originally didn't receive credit for the win and was briefly eliminated with Russian Evgeny Korolev, who beat Blake earlier this week, taking his place in the next round. However, ATP officials overruled the call and put the American in the quarterfinals anyway.

"This has troubled me enormously and I feel as though I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't," ATP Executive Chairman and President Etienne de Villiers said. "It's in the interests of the fans, media, tournament and players to find a common sense solution. We have said all along we are going to learn from the experiment."

Del Porto was just as upset from the decision that was first rendered, saying he would have completed the match had he been fully aware of the implications of his retirement.

"I wanted to finish the match, but also I was not aware of the technicality of the rule," del Porto said. "I did not feel comfortable continuing."

Blake will next face Sam Querrey, who held off his fellow American Paul Goldstein 6-4, 1-6, 6-4.

Hewitt, who lost to Blake in last year's Las Vegas Final, dropped the first set to Swede Thomas Johansson but came back to win 4-6, 7-5, 6-2, while Safin trailed 3-0 in the third set to fellow countryman Igor Kunitsyn only to rally for a 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 7-5 victory.

Seventh-seeded Brit Tim Henman, making his 2007 season debut this week, will not compete in the quarterfinals after he lost to Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 6-7 (1-7), 6-3, 6-4. Lopez, however, did advance to the round of eight and will square off with Hewitt.

Spaniard Fernando Verdasco, meanwhile, awaits Safin in the quarterfinals.

Fourth-seeded Austrian Jurgen Melzer and unseeded Czech Jan Hernych also landed in the quarters, as Melzer mauled Chilean Paul Capdeville 6-2, 6-2 and Hernych humbled former world No. 1 Gustavo Kuerten 6-4, 6-4. Melzer and Hernych went 2-0 in their round-robin groups this week at Darling Tennis Center. Melzer will meet Hernych in Friday's quarterfinals.

This week's event featured a 32-player round-robin, which consisted of a 16- player "play-off" where eight winners joined 16 other players to make-up eight groups of three players. Each player played two matches in the round-robin stage, with the winner from each group advancing to the quarters, where the tournament will now be played out per a traditional single-elimination format.

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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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MySportsbook.com: New College Football Clock Rules Examined

Coaches and bettors alike are desperate to make sense of the new time-keeping rules on the NCAA gridiron. One of the big stories to come out of the Ohio State-Texas clash last weekend was Texas coach Mack Brown's criticism of the NCAA's new clock rules that are intended to shorten the duration of college football games, therefore affecting college football betting.

"They scored with six minutes left and the game was over before we had a chance to do anything," Brown told ESPN.com. "I really hope whoever made these changes will go back and look them over."

Sure, it might be sour grapes; the Buckeyes thoroughly trounced the defending national champion Longhorns 24-7. However, Brown isn't alone in giving the changes their due thought. Bettors are also wondering about them, albeit for a completely different reason. Most experts agree that the changes will result in games being shortened by anywhere from 10 to 20 plays. The obvious consequence is lower scores, with more time rolling off the clock during changes of possession. (The Ohio State-Texas game flew well under the total of 52.)

According to research at the online sportsbook MySportsbook.com, more than 18 plays a game disappeared last weekend into thin air. That's a 10-percent reduction. In 2005, a typical game had 168.58 plays. For 2007 already, it's down to 150.26.

As a result, teams combined to gain an average of about 100 fewer yards a game last weekend versus the 2005 openers. Scoring was also down by about 4.5 points (attention Las Vegas sports lines).

Of course, oddsmakers were able to adjust to the changes before the season started. Proof of that came as the over went a balanced 8-9 at My Sportsbook on Saturday.

Other angles to consider:A shorter game should theoretically result in shorter lines. Whereas Team A might have been a 14-point favorite in a 168-play game (last year), if there are 10 percent less snaps in 2007, the line should also be reduced by 10 percent (to 13 or 12.5). Of course, this is an over-simplification of the matter, but something to keep in mind.
Less possessions means a better chance the game will be decided by three or seven points. For example, what might have been a 20-10 final score in 2005 may end at

17-10 in 2007. Granted, a 24-17 game last year might end at 21-17 these days, but the former - a three- or seven-point advantage being preserved as opposed to created - is the most likely scenario.

*UPDATE* - Sept. 25, 2007

New Clock Rules Boon for online bookmakers

By adjusting the time-keeping rules to shorten the duration of college football games, the NCAA hoped to make its product more enjoyable for the fans. While the NCAA's success in this regard is still up for debate, bookmakers couldn't be happier with the results.

"We are seeing a massive jump in college football betting," noted the MySportsbook.com management team. "With all the early Saturday games (12 a.m. ET) ending before the second wave begins (3:30 p.m. ET) - something that didn't always happen before the changes - bettors are now able to re-invest their winnings from the morning session in the afternoon games."

While not all bettors will choose to roll over their winnings, it doesn't take much for an impact to be seen on the bottom line. "Not all of the millions of dollars in morning payouts get re-bet. In fact, it's probably only 10 to 20 percent," noted the sportsbook management team. "Still, the increased football betting lines window will create a ton of growth for us over the course of the season."

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