Americans Blake, Dent advance in New Haven

Tennis Betting Lines

08/23/2010 - New Haven, CT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Americans James Blake and Taylor Dent both won their opening-round matches at the $750,000 Pilot Pen Tennis event, a final hardcourt U.S. Open tune-up.

Blake, who titled here in 2005 and 2007, made quick work of Spaniard Pere Riba, 6-0, 6-1. The 30-year-old Blake has been slowed by a knee injury that caused him to miss two months on the 2010 season and as a result has dipped to No. 111 in the ATP rankings.

Dent, meanwhile, needed three sets to defeat Argentine Eduardo Schwank, 7-6 (7-1) 4-6, 6-0 in a shade over two hours. Ranked 70th, Dent improved to 9-15 this season and is seeking his first tournament title of 2010.

Rain wreaked havoc on the schedule here on Sunday and interrupted the start of Monday's action at the Connecticut Tennis Center at Yale.

Former top-20 star Radek Stepanek, a lucky-loser this week, advanced with a 6-0, 6-4 handling of Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas.

American Donald Young blew past France's Stephane Robert, 6-1, 6-2.

Additional Day-2 wins came for Aussie Peter Luczak, Argentine Maximo Gonzalez, Russian Evgeny Korolev, Czech Jan Hajek and Germans Daniel Brands and Benjamin Becker, Russia's Igor Andreev and Teymuraz Gabashvili, Finland's Jarkko Nieminen, Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan, Slovakia's Lukas Lacko and Illya Marchenko of the Ukraine.

This week's top seeds are Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis and Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci.

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

The U.S. Open will commence next Monday.

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.