Federer pushed to five sets; Roddick also into quarterfinals

Tennis Betting Lines

09/02/2008 - Flushing Meadows, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Roger Federer needed 3 1/2 hours to complete his five-set, fourth-round win over 23rd seed Igor Andreev of Russia, while American Andy Roddick continued to roll in moving to the quarterfinals at the U.S. Open.

Federer kept alive his quest for a fifth straight U.S. Open title, earning a 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-5), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 victory. That advanced him to the quarterfinals against an unlikely opponent, Gilles Muller of Luxembourg. Muller upset fifth-seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (12-10).

The eighth-seeded Roddick breezed past 11th seed Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, 6-2, 6-4, 6-1 in less than 1 1/2 hours.

Last year's runner-up Novak Djokovic was a hard-fought fourth-round winner Tuesday. The third-seeded Djokovic came from behind to beat game 15th-seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 on Day 9 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

The second-seeded Federer ran his winning streak to 31 at the U.S. Open, last losing in Flushing in 2003. The former long-time world No. 1 Swiss, a 12-time major champion, overcame 60 unforced errors, but dominated at the net, winning 58 of a possible 84 points. Conversely, Andreev was just 12-of-28 on his net approaches. Also, the Russian converted just 2-of-15 break point chances.

Federer won the first three games of the final set, which included a key break of serve in the second game. Andreev was successful on a drop shot, but Federer returned the ball to the right corner, and the Russian's backhand went wide as the Super Swiss went up 2-0.

Then came four break point saves by Federer in the seventh game, when he went ahead 5-2 before finally serving out for the match.

It marked just the third time ever that Federer has played five sets at the U.S. Open.

"I'm very happy with the score, of course you always wish three sets," said Federer. "Honestly, those five-setters are pretty fun too."

Roddick, the 2003 champion here, had just seven unforced errors in his match with the Olympic silver medalist Gonzalez. Roddick was in complete control, firing eight aces and facing just one break point the entire match.

Now he has the task of facing Djokovic, who has been slowed by a number of injuries, including ones to his hip and ankle.

"I've got to feel good, he's got about 16 injuries right now," said Roddick. "He's made himself one of the elite players in the world. I'm just going to have fun and try to get the upset."

Davydenko reached the semifinals here the last two years, but couldn't handle Muller's expert play at the net. Muller converted 35-of-47 net approach opportunities.

Djokovic struggled mightily physically on a warm Tuesday at the year's fourth and final major. The Serb was bothered by an upset stomach and a sore ankle, but ultimately outlasted the pesky Robredo in 3 hours, 44 minutes.

The 21-year-old Djokovic broke Robredo to grab a 3-2 lead in the fifth and final set and broke again four games later to finally end the battle at Ashe Stadium.

Djokovic converted on his first match point when Robredo netted one final forehand. The Serb, who let the Spaniard hang around by committing 58 unforced errors, wound up with 11 aces and broke Robredo's serve six times.

The 6-foot-3 Djokovic was last year's U.S. Open runner-up to Federer and captured the Australian Open title back in January.

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Online Sportsbook Football Betting

LaDainian Tomlinson Favorite to be 2007 NFL MVP

With the first NFL preseason game less than two weeks away, it is time to start thinking about football once again at MySportsbook.com. Reigning NFL MVP LaDainian Tomlinson is currently the 5-1 co-favorite to win the award again alongside Super Bowl MVP Peyton Manning.

This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone after his all out assault on the record books last season. For those suffering from amnesia or were under a rock last football season, all L.T. did last season was set the NFL record for rushing touchdowns (28), total touchdowns (31) and total points scored (186) to go along with his 1815 rushing yards and 508 receiving yards. At 6-1, Tom Brady is next in line which isn’t surprising considering all of the firepower the Pats added over the off-season. With the addition of Randy Moss, Donte Stallworth and Wes Welker; it would be quite difficult for Brady’s numbers not to improve from last years 3529 yards and 24 touchdowns. There appears to be some decent value in Drew Bees at 10-1 considering he probably would have won the award last year if it wasn’t for L.T.’s record breaking season.

There is no reason to think the Saints will come back to earth this season and playing in a weak NFC, they should have as good a shot as any to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. At 15-1, Donovan McNabb could also be worth a look. Remember, many felt he was the MVP of the first half of the season before going down with a season ending injury. Reportedly, he is in great shape and well ahead of schedule to return to form. Also, he could have some added motivation to put up big numbers this season with the Eagles using their first pick in the draft on McNabb’s future successor Kevin Kolb.

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Sportsbook Betting Lines

Who Makes the Sportsbook Betting Lines?

Las Vegas Sports Consultants (LVSC) is the world’s premier oddsmaking company and the most respected authority on making the lines. Mike Seba is a Senior Oddsmaker at LVSC and has been making lines for the last six years. In our extended interview, Seba explained that there are 4-5 oddsmakers assigned to make lines for each of the major sports (pro & college football and basketball; MLB, NHL, boxing, golf). Each of these oddsmakers bring unique opinions, strengths and weaknesses to the process. Oddsmakers at LVSC are professional sports junkies who love what they do and would probably do it for nothing if you asked them, but they do get paid for it. By necessity their approach is very research-oriented and concise, since with millions of dollars at risk there is little margin for error.

“You either have a passion for it or you don’t,” Seba said.

“The #1 thing for us is to make a line for each game that creates good two-way action. We do this by drawing from past experiences and applying them to current situations. People think it’s much more complicated, but it’s not. “

What are the Football Betting Lines Trying to Accomplish?

There is a common misconception that point spreads represent the oddsmakers’ prediction of how many points the favorite will win by. That is not the case at all – their intent is NOT to evenly split the ATS result between the teams; rather, their goal is to attract equal betting action on both sides. Stated another way, they want to create a line that half the people find appealing to bet one way while the other half find it appealing to bet the other way (known as ‘dividing the action’).

Divided action means the sportsbook is guaranteed a profit on the game because of the fee charged to the bettor (called juice or vig – typically $11 bet to win $10).

How the Opening Line Is Made

The opening line is the first line created by the oddsmakers, which is then sent out to sportsbooks. Of course there is an entire method to the madness on how the opening line is created. Seba explained that it all starts with each oddsmaker creating a line on each game based upon their own personal approach. This usually includes having up-to-date power ratings on each team.

Power ratings are the oddsmaker’s value of each team and are used as a guide to calculate a "preliminary" pointspread on an upcoming game. The power ratings are adjusted after each game a team plays. Examples of non-game factors that would require an adjustment to a team's power rating are key player injuries and player trades.

Once a game’s power rating based pointspread is determined, the oddsmaker will make adjustments to that line after considering each team's most recent games played and previous games played against that opponent. Also, adjustments are made after reading each team’s local newspapers to get a sense of what the coaches & players are thinking going into the game.

Since the oddsmaker’s ultimate goal is equally dividing the sports betting action, public perception and sportsbook betting patterns must be taken into account. For example, the public might have heavy betting interest week after week on a popular college football betting team such as USC. If an oddsmaker comes up with a preliminary line of USC -7, then an adjustment up to -7.5 or -8 would be made in response to the public’s expected USC bias.

The last step in the line-making process for each oddsmaker is taking one final look to determine whether or not the line "feels right." This is where common sense and past experience with how games are bet enters into the picture.

A round-table discussion among the 4-5 oddsmakers involved in making the line for each sport is then conducted and a consensus line is decided upon by the Odds Director before it is released to the sportsbooks. Of the 4-5 oddsmakers, generally the 2 most respected opinions are weighed more heavily by the Odds Director before he decides on the final line.

Why Sports Betting Lines Change

Once the opening line is released by LVSC, the individual sportsbooks decide if they want to make any adjustments before offering it to the public. Reasons for such adjustments include:

Experts working for the individual books having a strong opinion on the game

Individual books having players who consistently bet with certain tendencies (such as an extreme bias toward favorites or toward a certain popular team like USC)

The purpose of these adjustments, like all line adjustments, is to more equally divide the betting action.

Once betting begins, sportsbooks can adjust the line at any time. In doing so they attempt to make more attractive the team that is getting less action. By moving the line, sportsbooks can influence how the public bets on a particular game.

For example, if the pointspread on a game is 7 and most of the money is coming in on the underdog (taking the +7), sportsbooks will then move the number down to 6 ½ to try and attract money on the favorite.

Moving the line is the oddsmaker's effort to balance betting action, and often times such moves can have a major impact on a bettor’s decision. Oddsmakers can also change the line depending on various event-related factors such as player injuries or weather. Obviously, if the line comes out a week ahead of the event (which is the case in football), there is much that could happen during the week leading up to the event that could affect the line. Oddsmakers have to determine if any changes are necessary and send out an "adjusted line."

“The main objective is that our clients get equal action on both sides,” Seba said. “We’re not trying to pick the team that covers the spread, we’re trying to make it a coin flip, a tough decision (for the bettor). If we’ve done that, we’ve done our job.”

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