Blake exits, Baghdatis advances at Pilot Pen

Tennis Betting Lines

08/26/2010 - New Haven, CT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two-time champion James Blake was a second-round loser, while top-seeded Marcos Baghdatis was a third-round winner Wednesday at the $750,000 Pilot Pen Tennis event, a final hardcourt U.S. Open tune-up.

The Cypriot Baghdatis, a former Aussie Open runner-up and finalist at the U.S. Open Series event in Washington, D.C. three weeks ago, dropped the first set to 14th-seeded Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina, but rallied to win 1-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Seventh-seeded rising Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov dismissed the wild card Blake in 6-4, 6-2 fashion at the Connecticut Tennis Center at Yale in a match that was suspended because of rain here on Tuesday night. The struggling former top-five star Blake, who grew up in nearby Fairfield, captured New Haven titles in 2005 and 2007.

Dolgopolov also had to play his third-round match on Wednesday, but fell to 10th-seeded Serbian Viktor Troicki 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-1), 6-2.

Mild third-round upsets came when Russian qualifier Teymuraz Gabashvili grounded fifth-seeded Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (9-7) and 12th-seeded Dutchman Thiemo De Bakker drove out eighth-seeded German Florian Mayer 6-7 (2-7), 6-1, 7-5. Lastly, Radek Stepnaek of the Czech Republic downed 16th-seeded Romanian Victor Hanescu 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (4-7), 6-4.

In other third-round play, 15th-seeded Uzbekistanian Denis Istomin held off Slovakian Lukas Lacko 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 and Russian Evgeny Korolev topped Ukrainian Illya Marchenko 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.

Stakhovsky reached the third round with a 2-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-1) come-from- behind victory over Aussie Peter Luczak, while another second-round result saw Troicki handle Finnish veteran Jarkko Nieminen 7-5, 6-3.

The final third-round match between sixth-seeded Tommy Roberdo and ninth- seeded Sergiy Stakhovsky was suspended due to rain with the first set tied 6-6.

The 2010 Pilot Pen champion will collect $93,630.

Mlufe 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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