Federer, Nadal roll into fourth round in Melbourne

Tennis Betting Lines

01/20/2012 - Melbourne, Australia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal were each straight-set winners Friday in third-round action at the Australian Open.

Federer, this year's third seed and a four-time winner in Melbourne, battled through a tough first set against Ivo Karlovic before capturing a 7-6 (8-6), 7-5, 6-3 win over the hard-serving Croatian. The 16-time Grand Slam champion had to save a set point in the first-set tiebreaker and did so with a lob over the 6-foot-10 Karlovic.

"I'm happy I found a way today," said Federer, who played his 998th career match on Friday. "[The] first set was crucial, like I said. [I'm] happy to be through in straight sets."

The second-seeded Nadal, who beat Federer for the 2009 Aussie Open crown, had little trouble in a 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 rout of Slovakia's Lukas Lacko. The 10-time Grand Slam champ has won each of his three matches in straight sets and hasn't yet faced a tiebreaker.

"I've played three matches at a very good level," Nadal said. "Today was one of the best. [It was] solid, without mistakes, [I was] comfortable with the serve [and] having good returns."

Things could start to get difficult for both men in the fourth round.

Federer, who had three days off before Friday's win because of a walkover in the second round, will be tested by Australian crowd favorite Bernard Tomic, while Nadal will square off against fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez.

Tomic, who rallied from two sets down to win his first-round match against Spain's Fernando Verdasco, went five again on Friday and advanced with a 4-6, 7-6 (7-0), 7-6 (8-6), 2-6, 6-3 win over 13th-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov of the Ukraine.

The 30-year-old Federer and 19-year-old Tomic have met just once previously, a four-set win for the Swiss veteran in a Davis Cup World Group playoff last year.

As for Nadal, he'll take on a familiar opponent in Lopez. The two have met 10 times previously, with Nadal winning eight. Lopez needed five sets to advance on Friday, as the 18th seed outlasted American John Isner, 6-3, 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 6-7 (0-7), 6-1.

"I hit great shots," Lopez said about his effort. "Sometimes I hit a little bit too much, too many double faults at one point, but overall I think I played great. I played great points."

Isner was the last American hope in Melbourne. It's the first time since 1973 that no American man has reached the round of 16 at the Australian Open. There were also no American men entered in 1973.

"It's very disappointing," Isner stated. "That's not a good effort from the Americans this tournament. I knew going in today I was the last one left and I wanted to keep on going, but just didn't happen. But it's very ugly, to be honest, to have no one in the round of 16. We've got to try to rectify that next time the big tournaments roll around."

Other winners Friday were seventh-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, 10th-seeded Spaniard Nicolas Almagro, 11th-seeded Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina and unseeded German Philipp Kohlschreiber.

Berdych earned a 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-1), 6-1 victory over South Africa's Kevin Anderson and will next take on Almagro, who notched a 7-6 (7-2), 6-2, 6-4 win over Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka.

Del Potro dropped a mere five games in a straight-set thumping of Taipei's Yen-Hsun Lu and will next face Kohlschreiber, who toppled Colombia's Alejandro Falla, 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (7-3). Falla eliminated eighth-seeded American Mardy Fish in the second round.

The third round continues Saturday with eight matches and features top-seeded Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, David Ferrer, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Aussie veteran Lleyton Hewitt.

Djokovic will battle Frenchman Nicolas Mahut with a potential fourth-round match against Hewitt on the horizon. Hewitt would have to beat Canada's Milos Raonic on Saturday.

The fourth-seeded Murray, who lost to Djokovic in last year's final and was also the runner-up to Federer two years ago, will meet Frenchman Michael Llodra. Ferrer, the fifth seed, will tangle with Argentina's Juan Ignacio Chela, while the sixth-seeded Tsonga will take on Portugal's Frederico Gil.

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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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