Federer, Murray reach third round in Madrid

Tennis Betting Lines

05/12/2009 - Madrid, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former world No. 1 superstar Roger Federer and U.S. Open runner-up Andy Murray were a pair of second-round winners Tuesday at the $5 million Madrid Open, an ATP World Tour Masters event.

The second-seeded 13-time major titlist Federer handled Swede Robin Soderling 6-1, 7-5, while a fourth-seeded Murray snuck past game Italian Simone Bolelli 7-6 (11-9), 6-4 on the red clay at the Magic Box.

The five-time reigning U.S. Open champion Federer captured the Madrid title in 2006 and was the runner-up here in 2007, when the event was held on an indoor hardcourt.

The three-time 2009 ATP titlist Murray, who beat Frenchman Gilles Simon in last year's indoor Madrid finale, will battle heavy Spanish crowd favorite Tommy Robredo in the round of 16.

In some other second-round play, seventh-seeded world No. 8 Fernando Verdasco whipped wild card, former world No. 1 and fellow Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-3, 6-2, while Croatian wild card Ivan Ljubicic upended ninth-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-4, 7-5 and a 16th-seeded Robredo came from behind to beat American Mardy Fish 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2. Ljubicic was a Madrid runner-up in 2005. The former French Open titlist Ferrero was a Madrid champion back in 2003.

The first round concluded with nine such matches here on Day 3, as 10th-seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko, 13th-seeded Croat Marin Cilic and 14th-seeded American James Blake safely reached the round of 32. Davydenko drubbed Serbian Viktor Troicki 6-2, 6-2, while Cilic held off Spaniard Marcel Granollers 6-2, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1 and last week's Estoril runner-up Blake handled Romanian Victor Hanescu 6-2, 6-4.

Last week's surprise Estoril titlist, Spaniard Albert Montanes, came up an opening-round loser Tuesday at the hands of Austrian Jurgen Melzer, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.

Last week's Munich titlist, Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, remained red hot with a 6-0, 7-6 (7-5) victory over Spanish lucky-loser Guillermo Garcia- Lopez.

Additional first-round wins came for 6-foot-10 Croat Ivo Karlovic, Italians Andreas Seppi and qualifier Fabio Fognini, and Frenchman Jeremy Chardy.

The second round is scheduled to conclude with 11 matches on Wednesday, including ones for world No. 1 Spanish superstar Rafael Nadal, third-seeded Serbian Novak Djokovic and sixth-seeded American newlywed Andy Roddick. Nadal will take on Melzer, seeking a 31st straight victory on his beloved red clay, while last week's Belgrade titlist Djokovic will encounter Spaniard Oscar Hernandez and the former world No. 1 Roddick will take on German Tommy Haas.

Roddick married model and fellow American Brooklyn Decker last month in a private ceremony in Texas and will play his first match since the wedding here on Wednesday.

The high-flying Nadal is the reigning Aussie Open, Wimbledon and French Open champ. The 2005 Madrid titlist is a staggering 147-6 on clay since '05.

Madrid, which was staged on an indoor hardcourt from 2002-08, now serves as a clay-court French Open tune-up.

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In what should be an outstanding Saturday of March Madness betting action, the top four teams in the South and West Regions square off in what should be extremely close match-ups. Three of the four teams are coming off extremely close games on Thursday evening, only UCLA won semi comfortably over Pitt 64-55.

Ohio State is coming off their second game in a row where in all reality they should have lost. Of course that doesn’t matter now since the name of the game is “survive and advance” but as the tournament continues, they can’t afford to keep getting down to their opponents early. Kansas also avoided a scare by holding off a scrappy Southern Illinois squad. In the third thrilling game of the evening Memphis pulled off the minor upset (+3.5) despite being the higher seed to Texas A&M.

Although the spreads are fairly small for Saturday’s games, MySportsbook.com continue to bet against the underdogs. Despite OSU’s two scares, 86% of the “betting public” feels the Buckeyes (-1.5) have what it takes to make the Final Four. In fact, so much of the early money is on OSU that the line has already moved from -1 to -1.5. In the second game of the doubleheader, Kansas and their high-powered offense are 2 point favorites as they take on UCLA and their effective defense. About 63% of the early money thus far is once again backing the favorites. If those percentages stay that high, don’t be surprised if this line moves as well. If you like Kansas (-2) you might want to jump on it early.

Memphis vs. Ohio State

Both squads were involved in thrillers on Thursday evening and should come out fired up. OSU can ill afford to get behind early like they did versus their previous two opponents (Xavier, Tennessee). Greg Oden needs to stay out of foul trouble; the Buckeyes are a completely different team when he is on the court. Memphis definitely has the athleticism and length to match-up with OSU. Of Memphis’ five leading minute earners, the shortest of the bunch is 6’5”. Each team has a very effective defense; Memphis surrenders 62.3 PPG whereas the Buckeyes give up only 61 PPG. With those type of numbers, it isn’t surprising that Memphis covered the UNDER almost 69% of the time this season. As a favorite, OSU has covered the UNDER almost 66% of the time over the last three seasons. The major concern for Memphis which is magnifies this time of the year is their brutal foul shooting (62%). This season, OSU is 17-11 ATS versus teams with a winning record and 7-2 ATS in all tournament games. Memphis has been an extremely reliable cover in tournament play in recent years with a 23-8 ATS record over the last three seasons.

UCLA vs. Kansas

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