Nadal will meet Djokovic in French Open semis

Tennis Betting Lines

06/06/2007 - Paris, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two-time defending champion Rafael Nadal and sixth-seeded Serbian Novak Djokovic were a pair of quarterfinal winners Wednesday at the French Open. The two young stars will square off in Friday's semifinals here.

The second-seeded Nadal whipped his good friend and fellow Mallorcan Carlos Moya 6-4, 6-3, 6-0 to improve to 19-0 lifetime at Roland Garros. Nadal beat the great Roger Federer in last year's blockbuster finale here and lost to the super Swiss in last season's Wimbledon title bout.

Nadal's comprehensive victory was completed in just over two hours, as he converted on his second match point of the day by launching one final winner. The routine victory included seven service breaks by Nadal and 41 unforced errors by an overmatched Moya.

The 23rd-seeded Moya is a former world No. 1 who captured his lone Grand Slam title right here in Paris back in 1998.

The 21-year-old Nadal is now 4-2 lifetime against his 30-year-old mentor Moya, including a 3-1 mark on clay.

Nadal has now reached four career Grand Slam semifinals (3-0), with three of them coming here in Paris over the last three years. He's trying to become the first men's three-peat winner at Roland Garros since the great Bjorn Borg captured four straight titles from 1978-1981.

Meanwhile, Djokovic had little trouble with unseeded Igor Andreev, downing the Russian 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 for his 40th singles victory of the year. Djokovic, who captured a Masters Series event in Miami earlier this season, improved to 2-0 lifetime against Andreev. Just last month, the Serbian star handled Andreev at a clay-court event in Portugal.

The 20-year-old Djokovic prevailed in 2 hours, 12 minutes on Court Chatrier, as he broke the 23-year-old Andreev's serve on five occasions, while holding his serve all but one time on Day 11 of this fortnight.

Djokovic will now appear in his first-ever Grand Slam semifinal. The surging Serb reached the quarterfinals here a year ago, before losing to Nadal, and is now 10-2 lifetime at Roland Garros.

Nadal and Djokovic will meet for a fifth time here on Friday, with the Spaniard holding a 3-1 lifetime advantage. They've already met three times this year, with Nadal winning in a final at Indian Wells and a quarterfinal in Rome and the Serb coming out on top in a quarterfinal in Miami.

Friday's other semi will pit the world No. 1 superstar Federer against fourth- seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko. The 10-time Grand Slam champion Federer currently holds the Wimbledon, U.S. Open and Aussie Open crowns and needs the French to complete a career Grand Slam. Legendary Aussie Rod Laver was the last man to hold all four major titles, which he did by sweeping the Grand Slam events in 1969.

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It's less than a month until the NHL hockey betting season opens at MySportsbook.com and preparations are underway for another battle in the race to hoist Lord Stanley's mug in 2007.

As cup crazy fans prepare to place their bets, one online sportsbook ,MySportsbook.com, is offering hockey betting lines on the 2007/2007 Stanley Cup , who will bring it home this upcoming season.

Despite a poor showing in last season's playoffs and the loss of Steve Yzerman to retirement, the Detroit Red Wings are early favourites at this online sportsbook with wagering odds of 6-1. The Wings will look to offensive powerhouse Pavel Datsyuk and newly appointed captain Nicklas Lidstrom to lead one of the league's most prominent franchises.

Always a threat are the Ottawa Senators, with newly acquired goaltender Martin Gerber from the Stanley Cup champion ,Carolina Hurricanes. The Sens are second best in the rankings at a 7-1 bet, and odds makers at this sportsbook are optimistic that the Ottawa squad will fare better than last season's Eastern Conference semi-final upset to the Buffalo Sabres.

Also worth noting are the defending Stanley Cup champs Carolina Hurricanes, a 10-1 bet to repeat. Behind the Canes are the New Jersey Devils, Calgary Flames, Buffalo Sabres, Philadelphia Flyers, and Anaheim Mighty Ducks all sit at 12-1. In the basement are the Washington Capitals, Chicago Blackhawks, and St. Louis Blues who all have 100-1 odds to win.

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SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting

NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.


That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.

A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."

It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.

The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.

So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."

Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.

Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Seriously.

The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.

The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.

Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."

The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.

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