Russia beats back Austria to stay alive in Davis Cup
Tennis Betting Lines
02/11/2012 - Wiener Neustadt, Austria (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Russia remained alive in the Davis Cup against Austria on Saturday as the doubles team of Nikolay Davydenko and Mikhail Youzhny earned a five-set victory over Alexander Peya and Oliver Marach.
Davydenko and Youzhny posted a 7-6 (7-1), 6-7 (7-9), 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 win, but Austria still leads the best-of-five tie, 2-1, and can wrap it up with one victory in Sunday's reverse singles.
Jurgen Melzer, who beat Igor Kunitsyn in five sets Friday, will get the first chance Sunday to close it out for Austria when he takes on Alex Bogomolov Jr., who was a four-set loser Friday against Andreas Haider-Maurer. Kunitsyn and Haider-Maurer are scheduled for the fifth rubber.
Russia is 2-0 all-time against Austria in Davis Cup play, although both of those ties came while it was part of the former Soviet Union, in 1981 and 1984.
The winner will face Spain in April's quarterfinals after the defending Davis Cup champs advanced past Kazakhstan on Saturday.
Nis, Serbia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sweden stayed alive in its first-round Davis Cup tie with Serbia after the doubles team of Johan Brunstrom and Robert Lindstedt pulled out a five-set victory over Janko Tipsarevic and Nenad Zimonji
<< Argentina finishes off Germany in Davis Cup
Bamberg, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Argentina has advanced to the Davis Cup
quarterfinals after the doubles team of David Nalbandian and Eduardo Schwank
rallied from two sets down to beat the German duo of Tommy Haas and Philipp
Petzsch
<< Celtic claims 13th-straight league win
Glasgow, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Celtic continued its stunning run of form
Saturday, defeating Inverness, 1-0, at Parkhead to extend its winning streak
in Scottish Premier League play to 13 games.
The Bhoys have not dropped points in
<< Czechs bounce Italy out of Davis Cup
Ostrava, Czech Republic (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Radek Stepanek and Tomas Berdych
followed up their singles victories from Friday with a doubles triumph
Saturday to send the Czech Republic past Italy and into the Davis Cup
quarter
<< Spain eliminates Kazakhstan in Davis Cup
Oviedo, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Spain has again advanced to the Davis Cup
quarterfinals after the doubles team of Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez
posted a straight-set victory over the Kazakhstan duo of Evgeny Korolev and
Yuriy S
Paris, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - French crowd favorite Marion Bartoli and German Angelique Kerber won semifinal matches Saturday at the Open GDF Suez. The second-seeded Bartoli defeated Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic 7-6 (
Rooney bags two to lift United over Liverpool >>
Manchester, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The intense rivalry in Northwestern
England did disappoint in entertainment value on Saturday as Manchester
United, led by a brace from Wayne Rooney, defeated Liverpool, 2-1, at Old
Traffor
Kuric lifts Louisville over West Virginia >>
Morgantown, WV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kyle Kuric hit the tying three-pointer as
part of a late Louisville run, then made a critical steal in the closing
seconds to help the 24th-ranked Cardinals notch their sixth straight win
with a
Jardine, Syracuse top UConn >>
Syracuse, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Scoop Jardine hit four three-pointers en route
to 21 points, leading second-ranked Syracuse to an 85-67 victory over
Connecticut at the Carrier Dome.
Dion Waiters added 18 points and Kris Joseph fol
No. 15 Florida State holds off Miami >>
Tallahassee, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bernard James scored 18 points, pulled
down six rebounds and blocked four shots, helping the 15th-ranked Florida
State Seminoles hold off the Miami-Florida Hurricanes, 64-59.
Michael Snaer and I
COLLEGE FOOTBALL BETTING
NCAA Football Betting : USC's reward: Top spot in Top 25NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.
No. 1 always seems to fit USC.
Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.
Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.
Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.
"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."
Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.
"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."
The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.
"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."
Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.
"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"
USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.
"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."
While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.
As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.
But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.
Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.
The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.
The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.
The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.
No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.
Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.
Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.
Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.
The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.
South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.
The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.
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