Melzer advances at Hamburg as more seeded players fall

Tennis Betting Lines

07/21/2010 - Hamburg, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Third-seeded Austrian Jurgen Melzer was among the second-round winners Wednesday at the German Open Tennis Championships, while more seeded players fell out of the tournament.

Melzer advanced with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Argentine Eduardo Schwank and will face France's Jeremy Chardy in the third round. Chardy dumped 13th-seeded Philipp Petzschner, 6-3, 6-3, a day after ninth-seeded Gilles Simon, 11th- seeded Tommy Robredo and 15th-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov lost.

Wednesday it was more of the same, as fifth-seeded Nicolas Almagro, eighth- seeded Albert Montanes, 12th-seeded Victor Hanescu and 16th-seeded Michael Berrer all lost.

Seventh-seeded Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil managed to advance, taking a 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 win over Italian qualifier Simone Bolelli. Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber, the 10th seed, dropped the first set, but came back to earn a 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 win over Argentina's Juan Ignacio Chela.

Almagro was defeated by Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin, who recorded a 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (9-7) victory. Spain's Pere Riba was a 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (7-4) winner over Montanes, while Julian Reister of Germany ousted Hanescu by a 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 score. Italian Andreas Seppi defeated Berrer, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4).

Betosports Tennis Betting News

<< Greinke and Pena lead Royals past Jays
Kansas City, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Zack Greinke allowed two runs and struck out nine in eight strong innings, leading the Kansas City Royals to a 5-2 win over the Toronto Blue Jays in the rubber match of a three-game series. Greinke (6-

<< Yankees outslug Angels to earn series split
Bronx, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mark Teixeira went 3-for-5 with a pair of doubles and three runs batted in, as the New York Yankees outlasted the Los Angeles Angles of Anaheim, 10-6, in the finale of a brief two-game set. Rookie Col

<< Chakvetadze a surprise second-round winner in Slovenia
Portoroz, Slovenia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Unseeded Russian Anna Chakvetadze scored a surprise victory in second-round action at the Slovenia Open. On Wednesday, Chakvetadze dismantled four-seed Italian Sara Errani by a 6-1, 6-2 count in

<< Steelers sign OL Jones to replace Colon
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Pittsburgh Steelers signed veteran offensive lineman Adrian Jones to a one-year contract on Wednesday. Financial terms of the deal were not announced. Jones was released in training camp last se

<< Bears sign former BYU star Unga
Lake Forest, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Bears on Tuesday signed running back Harvey Unga, who the team selected in the seventh round of the supplemental draft last week. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the Chica

Twins to reinstate Casilla from DL >>
Minneapolis, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Minnesota Twins will reinstate infielder Alexi Casilla from the 15-day disabled list prior to Thursday's game against Baltimore. Casilla has been on the DL since June 1 with bone chips in his r

Report: Alabama DE Dareus declared ineligible >>
Tuscaloosa, AL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Alabama defensive end Marcell Dareus has reportedly been declared ineligible in the wake of alleged improper dealings with sports agents. According to the Tuscaloosa News, it is standard for a player

Ottawa inks Foligno for two years >>
Ottawa, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Ottawa Senators signed forward Nick Foligno to a two-year contract on Wednesday. The 22-year-old Buffalo native slumped in his second full NHL campaign, recording just nine goals and 26 poin

Dodgers' Kershaw, Torre, Schaefer suspended for Tuesday's incident >>
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Major League Baseball has suspended Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw along with manager Joe Torre and bench coach Bob Schaefer as a result of incidents that occurred in Tuesday's game against the San Fra

Chivas USA acquires Zizzo through lottery >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sal Zizzo, a 23-year-old U.S. youth international, is now a member of Chivas USA following a weighted lottery which took place on Wednesday. The Goats had the third best chance (16.28 percent)

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.