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Nadal, Federer roll into quarterfinals at Aussie OpenTennis Betting Lines01/22/2012 - Melbourne, Australia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer were both straight-set winners Sunday in fourth-round action at the Australian Open. Nadal cruised into the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 win over fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez. The second-seeded Nadal, who is on a collision course with Federer for a possible semifinal matchup, moved to 9-2 all-time against Lopez and moved to the round-of-eight Down Under for a sixth straight year. The last time Nadal lost before the quarterfinals at a Grand Slam was at the 2009 French Open. "I am improving day by day," Nadal said. "But this time I felt that the first day I played well, and second, two days ago I played well. And today I played another complete match in my opinion, serious match." Lopez, seeded 18th, is the only left-handed player to have defeated Nadal on two occasions, but he has never even won a set against his Davis Cup teammate on a hard court surface. Since the start of 2010, only three different men have defeated Nadal in Grand Slam play - Novak Djokovic (twice), David Ferrer and Andy Murray (once each). Nadal, bidding to win his second Australian Open title (2009) and his 11th Grand Slam championship, will face No. 7 seed Tomas Berdych, who downed No. 10 seeded Spaniard Nicolas Almagro, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-2). That was a contentious match, especially at the end when Berdych refused to shake Almagro's hand. During the match, Almagro raced for a return and sent a rocket right off the right arm of Berdych, who clearly didn't like being hit. He said so during an interview after the near four-hour match. "When somebody wants to hit you straight in your face, I don't see this as a nice moment, especially when you have the whole court free," Berdych said. It's a good bet Nadal will advance past Berdych as he owns a 10-3 mark against the Czech. A third-seeded Federer, meanwhile, reached his 31st consecutive Grand Slam quarterfinal with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Aussie sensation Bernard Tomic. "Maybe the score suggested differently, but I thought we had a lot of long games, tough points, and I thought he did actually really well," said Federer, a four-time winner in Melbourne, who has won 20 of his last 21 matches against Australian opponents and ended the dream for the 19-year-old Tomic. The 30-year-old Federer will take on Argentina's Juan Martin Del Potro in the quarterfinals. Del Potro blew past Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1. The 11th-seeded Del Potro also reached the quarterfinals here as the No. 8 seed in 2009, where he suffered his worst Grand Slam defeat to date in a loss to Federer, winning just three games that entire match. He got a bit of revenge later in the year, beating Federer in the final of the U.S. Open. The fourth round will conclude Monday with matches featuring Djokovic, the top seed, Murray, Ferrer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Djokovic will battle Aussie veteran Lleyton Hewitt, while the fourth-seeded Murray will meet Kasakhstan's Mikhail Kukushkin. Murray lost to Djokovic in last year's final and was also the runner-up to Federer two years ago. Ferrer, the fifth seed, will take on 17th-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet, while the sixth-seeded Tsonga will face 24th-seeded Kei Nishikori of Japan.
<< Hall returns to Wagner as defensive coordinator
Staten Island, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Malik Hall is returning to the Wagner College football program for his second stint as defensive coordinator. Hall, 31, will begin his duties next month. He was Wagner's defensive coordinator in 2010 and
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Wozniacki, Clijsters reach QFs at Aussie Open >>
Melbourne, Australia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki and Kim Clijsters were a pair of fourth-round winners Sunday at the Australian Open. Wozniacki continued her recent mastery of Jelena Jankovic with a 6-0, 7-5 victor
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Big 12 Conference betting odds Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State 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.
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