Kvitova, Sharapova reach QFs; Serena shocked at Aussie Open

Tennis Betting Lines

01/23/2012 - Melbourne, Australia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova and former Melbourne titlist Maria Sharapova reached the quarterfinals, while five-time titlist Serena Williams was a stunning fourth-round upset victim Monday at the Australian Open.

An error-prone Williams was knocked out by Russian Ekaterina Makarova 6-2, 6-3 on Day 8 of the fortnight.

The 12th-seeded Williams misfired for 37 unforced errors and double-faulted seven times in her 82-minute setback at Rod Laver Arena.

"I'm not physically 100 percent, so I can't be so angry at myself, even though I'm very unhappy," said Williams, who suffered an ankle injury a few weeks ago. "I know that I can play a hundred times better than I did this whole tournament."

The 23-year-old Makarova will now appear in her first-ever major quarterfinal, and it will come against her compatriot Sharapova on Wednesday.

Barely able to get her first serve in half the time, Williams tallied 20 of her errors and four of her double faults in the second set.

"She went for broke on a lot of her shots. I made 37 errors," Williams said. "That kind of tells the story of the match."

Makarova called Williams "a great player" and said she was surprised to beat her.

"It's really tough to play against her," Makarova said. "But, I don't know, I just feel so good and so focused. So I played my game, and that's it. I won against Serena. That's amazing."

Williams owns 13 major titles, including five here in Melbourne. She was riding a 17-match winning streak here, having captured back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010 before missing last year's Grand Slam of the Pacific because of health reasons.

Meanwhile, the second-seeded Czech Kvitova continued her winning ways with a 6-2, 7-6 (7-2) straight-set win over 21st-seeded former world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic of Serbia. The match ended in 85 minutes at Laver.

The former French Open champion Ivanovic was the 2008 Aussie runner-up to Sharapova.

The 21-year-old Kvitova, who beat Sharapova in last year's Wimbledon finale and is also the reigning WTA Championships titlist, fired seven aces among her 30 winners, converting three of her six break points, and moved on to face Italian Sara Errani, who cooled off Chinese Zheng Jie 6-2, 6-1. Zheng had won her first eight matches of 2012, including a title in Auckland to open her season.

The women's quarters will commence Tuesday, as top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki will meet 11th-seeded reigning Aussie Open champ Kim Clijsters and third- seeded Victoria Azarenka will encounter eighth-seeded Pole Agnieszka Radwanska.

The former world No. 1 Clijsters is 2-0 lifetime against Wozniacki, as the Belgian bested the Dane in the 2009 U.S. Open final and the 2010 Tour Championships title tilt.

Azarenka is 6-3 versus Radwanska, including a victory in a semifinal in Sydney two weeks ago. The Belarusian went on to title in Sydney.

Clijsters beat Chinese Li Na in last year's finale to capture her first-ever Aussie title and fourth Grand Slam championship.

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Betting the NFL preseason

Rule No. 1 in the gamblers' handbook states, "Avoid sports betting on meaningless games."

When you're drowning in a sea of baseball monotony, however, things change. Even a hint of pro football betting can persuade the most disciplined bettor to break a few rules. 

The NFL preseason is around the corner, with a tempting Hall of Fame match kicking off on Sunday. But bettors must stay vigilant. Wagering on NFL exhibition games is an entirely different beast than the regular season. Most fans don't recognize the players on the field because starters get as much action in August as Warcraft fans get on Prom night.

The only certainty about the NFL this time of year is uncertainty – and yet there are some who say betting in August can be a gold mine.

“I actually feel the NFL preseason presents solid profit opportunities for sharp bettors and handicappers,” Sports Expert Steve Merril explains. “My experience has been that the sportsbooks fear the preseason, which is evident by lower limits and massive moves.”

The line moves are attributed to the limited knowledge available regarding playing-time distribution. One team’s top unit out on the field for one more series has an impact on the pointspread. Setting lines in the preseason often is a shot in the dark.

“We base the betting lines mostly on public perception,” Pete Korner, founder of the Sports Club in Las Vegas, says. “It’s very tough to predict, almost a guessing game.”

The preseason is all about figuring out who’s in and for how long.

“It becomes a race between bettors and oddsmakers to find out how long the quarterbacks are going to stay in,” Korner admits. “If a sharp gets the information first, he could exploit an early line. I’m a full believer in moving the line in the preseason if the books find out something late in the week.”

Determining what each team’s motive is can help bettors handicap. To do this you must pay close attention to the philosophies head coaches employ in exhibition play.

“You need to know what a coach is trying to accomplish,” says Covers Expert Bryan Leonard. “Sometimes a new coach will want to instill a winning attitude. Others just want to make sure their starters don’t get hurt."

So how do you distinguish who’s playing scared and who’s playing for keeps?

“Head coaches on the hot seat or new coaches trying to implement a winning attitude usually try harder to win in the preseason,” Merril says.

Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel fits this criteria. He’s entering his third season as the sideline boss and has yet to lead the Browns to more than six wins.

Cleveland is an enticing bet as well because of the unresolved quarterback situation. General manager Phil Savage sacrificed the Browns’ first-round pick in next year’s draft for Brady Quinn, but the former Notre Dame quarterback hasn’t signed or reported to training camp yet.

Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson split time at QB last season and it looks like either player (or even Quinn) could be the opening-day starter.

“If a team has quarterback depth and the pecking order hasn’t been decided, it’s a big advantage,” Leonard says.

Even in the third week of the preseason when starters generally play the most, the final outcome of the game is in the hands of fringe players. A team's talent, all the way down to the last man on the roster, is something to consider.

The New England Patriots have long been considered one of the deeper teams in the NFL and coach Bill Belichick has said in the past he’s unafraid of stars getting hurt in games with nothing on the line. He shocked his colleagues in 2003 by playing some of his starters on special teams in the preseason.

“We want to have the team ready to play a tough, physical game and preparation has to go into that and I imagine a certain amount of injuries go with it,” Belichick told the Providence Journal in August 2003.

Bettors can only hope to find more teams that share the Pats' business-like approach to the preseason (New England is 17-9-3 against the spread since 2000) and take advantage of teams who detest the exhibition schedule.

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