Isner wins another long match

Tennis Betting Lines

07/21/2010 - Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Second-seeded American John Isner needed a little more than 2 1/2 hours to beat Luxembourg qualifier Gilles Muller, 4-6, 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (9-7), in the second round Wednesday at the Atlanta Tennis Championships.

Isner, who is playing his first tournament since Wimbledon where he prevailed in an 11-hour, 5-minute match over Frenchman Nicolas Mahut in the first round, fired 33 more aces on Wednesday. He leads the ATP Tour with 705 aces this season.

After gaining the upperhand in the tiebreak, Isner finished off his opponent when Muller hit a return wide. Next up for Isner will be American Michael Russell, who defeated Germany's Rainer Schuettler, 1-6, 6-2, 7-5.

Mardy Fish, the No. 6 seed, got past fellow American Robby Ginepri, 6-1, 7-5. Fish's quarterfinal opponent will be American Taylor Dent, who upended fourth- seed Horacio Zeballos of Argentina, 4-6, 6-2, 6-0.

Top seed Andy Roddick, who received an opening-round bye, plays his second- round match against Rajeev Ram Thursday. Third seed Lleyton Hewitt battles Slovakia's Lukas Lacko

This is the first year since 2001 that Atlanta has held an ATP World Tour tournament. That year the tournament was held in late April on clay and an 18- year-old Roddick defeated Belgium's Xavier Malisse in the final. Malisse is seeded seventh this week and will play Ukraine's Illya Marchenko on Thursday.

The other second-round match has South African Kevin Anderson playing American Donald Young.

The tournament winner will receive $91,800.

Sporsillustrated Tennis Betting News

<< Padres rally past Braves in extras
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nick Hundley's pinch-hit, two-run double in the top of the 12th inning lifted San Diego to a 6-4 win over Atlanta in the middle game of a series at Turner Field between division leaders. The National Lea

<< Holliday, Cardinals top Phillies for eighth straight win
St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Matt Holliday hit a tie-breaking home run in the bottom of the seventh and Felipe Lopez supplied a two-run double the next inning, as St. Louis defeated the scuffling Philadelphia Phillies, 5-1, in the third i

<< Nats down Reds with hot bats
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Cristian Guzman clubbed a two-run homer and the Nationals also got two-run singles from Nyjer Morgan and Ian Desmond in an 8-5 win over Cincinnati. Willie Harris added a solo homer in the ninth inning f

<< Cust and Watson power Athletics past Red Sox
Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jack Cust finished 2-for-3 with a two-run homer and scored twice as Oakland took down Boston, 6-4, in the rubber match of a three-game set. Rajai Davis added two RBI and Matt Watson slugged his first

<< Former manager Ralph Houk dies
Winter Haven, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ralph Houk, who managed the New York Yankees to consecutive World Series championships in 1961-62, passed away Wednesday at the age of 90. Houk, who played as a backup catcher for the Yankees fr

Gutierrez gets clutch hit in 11th as M's top ChiSox >>
Seattle, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Franklin Gutierrez stroked a two-run single in the bottom of the 11th inning, and the Seattle Mariners beat the Chicago White Sox, 2-1, to salvage the finale of a three-game series at Safeco Field. The White S

Billingsley tosses shutout as Dodgers avoid sweep >>
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Casey Blake hit a solo homer and drove in another run with a single to back Chad Billingsley's second career shutout, as the Los Angeles Dodgers snuck past the San Francisco Giants, 2-0, in a pitcher

D-Backs edge Mets in 14 to complete rare sweep >>
Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chris Snyder's hit to the gap in left-center field scored Justin Upton with the winning run in the 14th inning, boosting Arizona to a 4-3 win over the New York Mets, as the Diamondbacks completed their f

Rockets feel ready to contend in West >>
HOUSTON (AP) - The Houston Rockets think they are ready to contend in the Western Conference, even after striking out on the big names in this summer's free-agent bonanza.When their main target, Chris Bosh, opted to join LeBron James and Dwyane Wade

Struggling Tigers in need of deadline help >>
Toronto, Canada (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - With the MLB non-waiver trade deadline fast approaching and the post-all-star break blues in full effect, the Detroit Tigers have some serious soul-searching to do before July 31st. Heading into the Mid-Su

COLLEGE FOOTBALL BETTING

NCAA Football Betting : USC's reward: Top spot in Top 25

NEW 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.

Get free Sports Betting lines RSS feeds from top rated online sportsbook MySportsbook.com