Clijsters ousts Wozniacki; Azarenka reaches semis

Tennis Betting Lines

01/24/2012 - Melbourne, Australia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - At least Caroline Wozniacki won't have to answer questions about her World No. 1 ranking anymore.

Wozniacki, who has spent 67 of the last 68 weeks atop the world rankings despite never winning a major championship, lost in straight sets to defending Australian Open champion Kim Clijsters in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.

The 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) decision means Clijsters still has a chance to become the eighth women's player to successfully defend the Australian Open title and also ensures a new World No. 1 by week's end.

Clijsters, seeded 11th, reached the quarters only after rallying past Li Na on Sunday in a rematch of last year's title match in Melbourne. The Belgian suffered an ankle injury in the first set, then saved four match points in the second-set tiebreaker before staving off Li in the third.

The four-time Grand Slam champion had decidedly less trouble Tuesday, earning six breaks of serve at Rod Laver Arena.

Wozniacki was able to force a tiebreaker in the second set, but a cross-court winner gave Clijsters match point at 6-4. As was the case for most of the match, Wozniacki was unable to win a point on her serve, as Clijsters' winner at the net sent the Dane home early yet again.

Wozniacki had not dropped a set in her first four matches at the season's first major, but won just 49-percent of her service points to fall to 0-3 in her career against Clijsters.

In the semifinals, Clijsters will meet Victoria Azarenka, who overcame a letdown in the first-set tiebreaker to upend Agnieszka Radwanska 6-7 (0-7), 6-0, 6-2 in their quarterfinal match.

There were eight breaks of serve in the first set alone between Azarenka and the eighth-seeded Radwanska, who won all seven points in a surprisingly quick tiebreaker.

Azarenka, seeded third, bounced back from losing her first set of the tournament quite swimmingly, goose-egging the Pole in a 26-minute second set.

The Belarussian kept the momentum in her favor and controlled the final set to improve to 7-3 against Radwanska, who has yet to reach a major semifinal. Azarenka reached her second Grand Slam semi.

The other two quarterfinal matches will be played on Wednesday, with Ekaterina Makarova, fresh off an upset of Serena Williams, taking on fourth-seeded Maria Sharapova and second-seeded Petra Kvitova squaring off against Sara Errani.

Either Azarenka, Kvitova or Sharapova will take over the No. 1 ranking.

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Kurt Warner to start, Matt Leinart to watch

Despite the debate that's swirling , Kurt Warner will remain the starting quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals, coach Dennis Green said today. The Arizona Cardinals are the +7 point underdog at online sportsbook MySportsbook.com for this Sunday's game.

Green's comment came in a statement released by the team following an ESPN report that Green decided that rookie Matt Leinart would replace Warner as starter for Sunday's game at Atlanta.

"Generally talking about the starting lineup is not something we do," Green told the AP. "However, given the speculation that was out there we want to make it clear. We're disappointed after last week, but we still expect to be a playoff football team and we fully expect Kurt Warner to be the quarterback that leads us. That has not changed."

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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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