Berdych, Fish post wins in Cincy

Tennis Betting Lines

08/17/2010 - Mason, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Wimbledon runner-up Tomas Berdych reached the third round, while hot American Mardy Fish posted an opening-round victory Tuesday at the $3 million Western & Southern Financial Group Masters, a U.S. Open Series event.

The seventh-seeded Berdych handled Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4, 6-4, while the wild card Fish continued his recent fine play with a 7-6 (7-4), 7-5 victory over France's Gilles Simon on the hardcourts at the Lindner Family Tennis Center. The surging Fish has now won 30 matches this season, including 12 of his last 13, with recent titles coming in Newport and Atlanta.

Fish was the Cincinnati runner-up back in 2003.

Tuesday's other second-round winner was Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis. The former Aussie Open runner-up snuck past Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4). Baghdatis was a runner-up in Washington, D.C. two weeks ago.

Baghdatis will meet the formidable Berdych in the round of 16.

Opening-round upsets came when former top-10 Frenchman Richard Gasquet grounded 12th-seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 and Colombian qualifier Alejandro Falla dismissed 16th-seeded Frenchman Gael Monfils.

Fading American James Blake, a wild card this week, continued his recent losing ways with a 6-3, 6-0 first-round setback at the hands of Uzbekistanian qualifier Denis Istomin. Blake was a Cincy finalist in 2007.

Istomin is rewarded with a second-rounder against former top-ranked superstar Roger Federer, this week's third seed and defending champion. The 16-time major titlist Federer, who beat reigning two-time Cincy runner-up Novak Djokovic in last year's finale here, was also the Cincinnati champ in 2005 and 2007.

Talented Latvian Ernests Gulbis erased wild card and once-promising American Donald Young 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.

Additional first-round wins came for German Philipp Kohlschreiber and Frenchmen Julien Benneteau and Jeremy Chardy, who will face last week's Canadian Masters champion Andy Murray in the round of 32. The Aussie Open runner-up Murray, who beat Federer in last week's finale in Toronto, was the Cincy champ in 2008.

The 2010 Cincinnati titlist will claim $443,500.

Wwwcasinodomain Tennis Betting News

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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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