Melzer and Golubev advance to semis in Hamburg

Tennis Betting Lines

07/23/2010 - Hamburg, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jurgen Melzer and Andrey Golubev were two of four quarterfinal winners at the German Open Tennis Championships on Friday.

Melzer dispatched Potito Starace of Italy, 6-4, 6-1, in only 69 minutes to reach the semifinals in a fourth tournament this season.

The Austrian, who recently reached his first Grand Slam semifinal at Roland Garros, fired eight aces to earn his 15th clay court win of the season.

Melzer will meet Italy's Andreas Seppi, who outlasted seventh-seeded Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil, 7-6 (7-0), 5-7, 7-5 in three hours and 12 minutes.

Seppi, who has reached the semis for a second time in three years at this event, has won two of three prior matches against Melzer.

Saturday's other semifinal will feature Kazakhstan's Golubev and Germany's Florian Mayer. The two will face each other for the first time.

Golubev, who suffered no let down after knocking off defending champ Nikolay Davydenko Thursday, had a relatively easy time getting past Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin, 6-4, 6-1. He will be trying to reach the final of an event for only the second time in his career, having done so previously in 2008 at St. Petersburg.

Mayer rallied to beat sixth-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero, 6-7 (3-7), 6-2, 6-3 to advance to the final four of a tournament for the first time this year. He has put himself in position to reach a final for the first time since 2006.

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Big Ten Conference odds

Teams that should be in: Michigan State, Indiana
Work left to do: Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Iowa

Behind the big two, the pecking order might be in a bit of flux. Has Michigan State passed Indiana after handling the Hoosiers in East Lansing? Where is Illinois in that mix? What looked like a four-big league last week could be morphing into five -- and even six is not unthinkable at this point if everything breaks right.

Should be in:

Michigan State [21-8 (8-6), RPI: 20, SOS: 15] The Spartans made it four-for-four on the homestand, a gigantic accomplishment that leaves them in extremely good shape. MSU is only 1-6 on the road and is at Michigan and at Wisconsin to close things out, meaning the date with the Wolverines on Tuesday looms very, very large. Beating Texas early will hold up well, as will the rout of Bradley and the win over BYU, but will 8-8 be enough? It very well could be, as the computer numbers are good, but why chance it?

Indiana [18-9 (8-6), RPI: 24, SOS: 32] Hmm ... good thing the last two are at Northwestern and home to Penn State, because IU might want to get both to feel completely safe after dropping its third in the last four, fading after halftime at Michigan State. Who knew the best nonconference win would be over Southern Illinois, which is a gift that keeps on giving for the Hoosiers. The win over Wisconsin also looks good on the mantel.

Work left to do:

Illinois [21-9 (9-6), RPI: 31, SOS: 25] A good performance at Penn State leaves the Illini in pretty good shape. Can they go to Iowa and take care of business to really look on their way? That's a huge game, as there is a possible cluster of teams that will end at 9-7. Illinois beat Bradley, but has lost to Xavier. A 9-7 mark and a semifinals trip in Chicago could be enough with the computer profile hanging in there, but it would be better not to mess around, clinching at least a tie for third.

Purdue [18-10 (7-7), RPI: 47, SOS: 28] Couldn't get it done at Iowa, but did win at Northwestern to put 9-7 squarely in sight. Where does that leave the Boilermakers, though? Even if they beat Minnesota and Northwestern at home, that won't help the computer numbers. Nonconference wins over Virginia, DePaul and Oklahoma are solid, but not spectacular. The Boilers very well might need an upset in the B10 quarters to have a legit claim.

Michigan [19-10 (7-7), RPI: 55, SOS: 53] Well, Michigan did what it needed to do, winning at Minnesota to take control of its fate. The Wolverines have Michigan State and an already-wrapped-up-the-league Ohio State at home to close, so the chances are there. Win both and we can talk. There is no marquee win yet in the profile, and the Wolverines were splattered in several games against name opponents. A mediocre computer profile fueled by a lack of road wins isn't helping, either.

Iowa [16-12 (8-6), RPI: 80, SOS: 64] For the sake of being complete, we'll add Iowa, this season's Stanford. It's plausible that the Hawkeyes could get to 10-6 (at Penn State, vs. Illinois left), but where does that leave them after a gruesome nonconference performance where the best win was over ... Toledo? Iowa State? Cornell?? If they get to 10-6, we can start to look at what they need to do in the B10 tourney, although my gut sense is that they would need to make the final and have knocked off Ohio State or Wisconsin on the way to have any real claim.

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