Ferrer wins; Safin loses in Barcelona

Tennis Betting Lines

04/21/2009 - Barcelona, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Last year's runner-up David Ferrer posted a second-round win, while former world No. 1 Marat Safin came up a first-round loser Tuesday at the $2.6 million Barcelona Open.

The fourth-seeded Ferrer held off Kazakhstani qualifier Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 on the red clay at Real Club de Tenis Barcelona. Ferrer was last year's runner-up here to fellow Spaniard Rafael Nadal.

Ferrer was joined in the third round by 12th-seeded Russian Igor Andreev, who flattened Spanish wild card Alberto Martin 6-2, 6-2 on Day 2.

The 2000 Barcelona titlist Safin, meanwhile, lost to gritty Argentine Juan Monaco 6-4, 6-1 in the big Russian's last appearance here. The two-time major champion Safin announced months ago that this would mark his final season on the ATP World Tour.

Four other seeds avoided opening-round upsets, as No. 9 Czech Radek Stepanek snuck past Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, No. 13 Frenchman Richard Gasquet overcame Czech Jan Hernych 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, No. 14 Swede Robin Soderling subdued Russian Teimuraz Gabashvili 6-1, 6-4, and No. 16 Spanish favorite Feliciano Lopez leveled Finn Jarkko Nieminen 6-2, 6-1 at this French Open tuneup.

Former French Open champ Gaston Gaudio, playing in only his second ATP match of the year, reached the second round by outlasting fellow Argentine Diego Junqueira 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. The wild card Gaudio was the 2004 titlist at Roland Garros and captured the Barcelona title in 2002.

In some other first-round play, Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Traver whipped Italian and fellow qualifier Fabio Fognini 6-1, 6-3; Spaniard Oscar Hernandez humbled Argentine Eduardo Schwank 6-2, 6-4; Ecuador's Nicolas Lapentti topped Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4, 2-6, 6-2; Frenchman Arnaud Clement doused Argentine Guillermo Canas 7-6 (7-0), 6-3; and Russian Mikhail Youzhny edged out Serbian Viktor Troicki 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (8-6), 6-3.

This week's top seeds are Spanish favorites Nadal and Fernando Verdasco and Russian Nikolay Davydenko. Nadal is the reigning four-time Barcelona champ.

The reigning Australian Open, Wimbledon, French Open and Olympic titlist Nadal is fresh off his fifth straight Monte-Carlo championship, having beaten Serb Novak Djokovic in this past Sunday's finale in Monaco.

Nadal will open defense of his Barcelona title against Portuguese Frederico Gil here on Wednesday, while Verdasco will encounter the qualifier Lapentti and Davydenko will battle Clement.

The Day-3 schedule will also feature second-rounders for fifth-seeded Chilean Fernando Gonzalez, sixth-seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo and seventh-seeded Argentine David Nalbandian. The 2004 Barcelona champion Robredo will take on his fellow former champ Gaudio.

This week's champion will pocket $370,000. The top-eight seeds all received first-round byes.

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FOOTBALL BETTING LINES

NFL Football Sports Betting

Two playoff teams from 2007 take center stage on the NFL Network Sunday night in a Week 2 NFL betting match-up when the (0-1) New England Patriots betting head south to Florida for a contest with the (1-0) Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

New England HC Bill Belichick couldn’t care less about the way his team plays in the preseason. With a chance to tie last week’s game with the Baltimore Ravens betting, He elected to go for the two-point conversion and outright victory. The conversion failed, and the Pats ended up falling to the Ravens by a 16-15 final count.

New England rolled off twelve unanswered points to give it a chance at securing the victory, but it never threatened to cover the 3.5-point spread. NFL bettors saw this one coming, as they bet the Ravens down from +6 to +3.5 as the week progressed. QB Tom Brady didn’t take part in the Patriots first preseason clash, but could see action this weekend.

His three replacements all put up embarrassing numbers. They went a combined 17 for 33, and threw three interceptions and no touchdowns. The New England defense was encouraging, as they held the Ravens to 2/12 third down conversions and surrendered just ten first downs. That ‘D’ should be bolstered with the addition of former Bucs and Denver Broncos betting safety John Lynch, who could make his Patriots debut on Sunday against his former mates.

HC Jon Gruden had to be impressed with the way his Bucs played on both sides of the ball in their dominating 17-6 victory over the Miami Dolphins in Week 1’s NFL pre-season betting action. Bucs bettors were quite happy with the effort, as they made a mockery of the fact that they were underdogs in the game.

The logjam at the quarterback position didn’t get any easier to separate for Gruden, as all four of his QBs had positive experiences in the first exhibition of 2008. The four combined to complete 28 of their 40 passes for 204 yards and a touchdown, and that was without starting QB Jeff Garcia in the lineup.

RB Michael Bennett had 19 carries and four receptions, totaling 90 yards and a touchdown. Expect to see more of Bennett, Kenneth Darby, and Earnest Graham, as they all compete for playing time with Warrick Dunn in the backfield this season. Defensively, the Bucs recorded four sacks and held the Fins offense in check all day.

First round draft pick Aqib Talib was impressive in the secondary, recording a tackle and two pass defenses in his debut. Don’t be surprised to see Talib in the starting lineup opposite Ronde Barber for the Bucs in ’08.

The betting trends suggest that NFL bettors should be backing the Bucs in this intra-conference exhibition.

These two teams hooked up last year in Tampa Bay, with the Bucs winning that game 13-10. The Buccaneers have only lost one preseason game at home dating back to the beginning of the ’05 preseason. The Patriots have had a mixed bag of results in their recent exhibitions. They have gone 2-2 ATS and SU each of the last three years.

New England currently sits as modest 1-point favorites in this preseason showdown with the ‘total’ now sitting at 34.5.

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