Federer, Fish to meet in Cincy final

Tennis Betting Lines

08/21/2010 - Mason, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Swiss superstar Roger Federer will meet wild card American Mardy Fish in the final of the $3 million Western & Southern Financial Group Masters after each won his respective semifinal matchup.

Federer cruised past Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, needing 70 minutes to advance to his second ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final in as many weeks. Last week, Federer fell to Andy Murray in the title match at Toronto.

The former world No. 1 and third seed here, Federer has won this tournament in 2005, 2007 and 2009. He has not captured a title since winning the Australian Open in January.

Meanwhile, Fish rallied past fellow American Andy Roddick in the early rain-slowed semifinal matchup.

Roddick, the ninth seed, led early but succumbed in Fish's 4-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-1 victory, preventing the 2003 Cincinnati champ from exacting a measure of revenge for a loss in the duo's last meeting in Atlanta last month.

The 27-year-old Roddick had taken a 5-4 lead in the first set before the match was suspended briefly by rain, then finished off the deciding point shortly after play resumed.

He raced out to a 4-1 lead in the second set and was poised for victory with a 5-2 lead before rain halted action once more. Fish rallied for three points to tie, then rallied once more to reach a tiebreaker.

Fish took control by bolting out to a 3-0 edge in the third set and never looked back.

The 2010 Cincinnati titlist will claim $443,500.

Sprotsillustrated Tennis Betting News


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What Is the Point Spread?

What are Sports Betting Point Spreads?

In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.

Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).

If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).

Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.

How to Read Point Spreads

New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles

The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)

In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:

To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.

Marlins could start season without No. 2 starter Johnson

JUPITER, Fla. -- The Foorida Marlins are preparing for the likelihood that right-hander
Josh Johnson won't be ready when the season starts April 2.

Grapefruit League action starts Wednesday, but Johnson, penciled in as the No. 2 starter, hasn't even thrown off a mound at full speed since September. He's experienced some soreness in his right forearm.

MySportsbook.com have the Marlins listed with baseball betting lines at +800 to win the NL East this season .

''You guys know the math. If he's not on the hill then he becomes an opening day roster issue,'' manager Fredi Gonzalez said Saturday. ''We're borderline now.''

Johnson, who finished 12-7 with a 3.10 ERA in 2007, was supposed to throw on flat ground Saturday. That was canceled when he woke up with pain.

He played catch on Wednesday with no pain but felt discomfort in a throwing session on Thursday. He's expected to try again Sunday.

''Like we always said from the very beginning, we're going to take it easy on him,'' Gonzalez said. ''He didn't feel right, so we shut him down. We're going to take it back to step one and see where we're at.''

Among the candidates to take Johnson's spot in the rotation are left-hander Chris George and right-handers Yusmeiro Petit and Jose Garcia.

Right-hander Sergio Mitre, who missed most of last season with arm and shoulder problems, also is behind.

With Johnson's status doubtful, Gonzalez said right-hander Ricky Nolasco will stay in the rotation and no longer will be considered a candidate for closer.

Additional basbeall odds can be found at: www.MySportsbook.com

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com - this sportsbook accepts credit cards.