Federer gains quarterfinal berth, rematch with Soderling
Tennis Betting Lines
09/07/2010 - Flushing Meadows, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Roger Federer continued to roll at the U.S. Open on Monday, this time scoring a straight-set victory over Austrian Jurgen Melzer to reach the quarterfinals.
The second-seeded Federer earned a 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 win over the No. 13 seed Melzer. The super Swiss has not dropped a set at this fortnight and will next take on Swede Robin Soderling.
The fifth-seeded Soderling took down No. 21 seed Albert Montanes of Spain, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-3. Although Federer is 12-1 lifetime against the reigning two-time French Open runner-up, Soderling beat the 16-time Grand Slam champion in the quarterfinals at this year's French Open. That snapped Federer's streak of 23 consecutive Grand Slam semifinal appearances.
I'll be the second straight year the two have met at the U.S. Open. In 2009, Federer won in four tough sets in the quarterfinals.
"I'm looking forward obviously," Federer said. "He's always been a dangerous player. He's able to do it consistently at the highest level and looks like he's going to finish in the top-5 at the end of the year. This is obviously a tough draw for me."
The former world No. 1 Federer titled here from 2004-08 and was last year's runner-up to Argentine slugger Juan Martin del Potro. This year's Aussie Open champ earned his 26th successive Grand Slam quarterfinal.
After finishing off the second set with a powerful forehand, Federer gained a break midway through the third before beating Melzer for a second time this year. Their other match was in the round-of-16 at Wimbledon, also a three-set win for Federer.
Also on Monday, former runner-up Novak Djokovic handled American Mardy Fish, while Frenchman Gael Monfils also moved into the quarterfinals.
The third-seeded Djokovic drubbed a lethargic 19th-seeded Fish in surgeon-like 6-3, 6-4, 6-1 fashion at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Djokovic moved on in 1 hour, 50 minutes by piling up six service breaks against the typically-big-serving Fish.
Fish, who labored here on Labor Day, had won 18 of his previous 20 matches, including a pair of titles and a runner-up finish against Federer at an ATP Masters/U.S. Open Series tournament in Cincinnati.
"It's been a great summer, obviously, for many reasons," Fish said. "Sort of put myself back into a position where I feel like I belong, and I put in a ton of hard work."
The 23-year-old Djokovic will compete in his fourth straight U.S. Open quarterfinal. The steady Serb reached at least the semifinals in his previous three trips to New York, and has reached at least the quarters in 13 of his last 15 Grand Slam events overall.
"I played a great match today, Djokovic said. "Conditions were tough as well with a strong wind. I was using my serve in important moments extremely well and opening the court and kind of not giving him enough chances to come to the net and be aggressive."
Djokovic is a former Australian Open titlist and lost to Federer in the 2007 U.S. Open finale. He'll face an acrobatic Monfils in a quarterfinal here on Wednesday.
The enigmatic Monfils reached his third career, and first-ever U.S. Open, quarterfinal with a hard-fought and entertaining 6-4, 7-5, 7-5 victory over compatriot Richard Gasquet. The 17th-seeded Monfils advanced in 2 hours, 35 minutes by firing 14 aces and breaking Gasquet's serve five times in a match between two of the most talented players on the ATP World Tour.
Monfils is the first Frenchman in 10 years to reach the U.S. Open quarterfinals.
The fourth round concludes on Tuesday with top seed Rafael Nadal, the reigning French Open and Wimbledon champion, continuing his quest for a first U.S. Open title by facing fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez. The last time Nadal lost before the quarterfinals at a Grand Slam was at the 2009 French Open.
Another battle of Spanish players has No. 8 Fernando Verdasco playing 10th seed David Ferrer. the other two matches will see 12th-seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny battling Spain's Tommy Robredo, and 20th-seeded American Sam Querrey battling 25th seed Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland.
Due to the matchups, Spain is guaranteed the first all-Spanish quarterfinal in the U.S. Open in the Open Era.
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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.
Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"
A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."
Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.
In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.
"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."
Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.
But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"
Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.
This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.
Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.
In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.
No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.
And that's all any bettor can ask for.
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