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07/29/2010 - Istanbul, Turkey (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - French Open champion Francesca Schiavone was a second-round loser Thursday at the $220,000 Istanbul Cup hardcourt tennis event.
Britain's Elena Baltacha sent the top-seeded Schiavone packing 6-4, 6-2 in 1 hour, 25 minutes on Day 4 here. The 26-year-old Baltacha piled up five service breaks in the upset.
Schiavone became the first-ever Italian woman to capture a Grand Slam title in June when she ran the table in stunning fashion at Roland Garros.
Meanwhile, third-seeded Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova waltzed into the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-2 drubbing of Slovakian Magdalena Rybarikova.
Pavlyuchenkova's quarterfinal opponent on Friday will be Romanian Sorana Cirstea, who cooled off Swede Johanna Larsson, 6-4, 6-4. The 21-year-old Larsson reached her first career WTA Tour final last week in Slovenia.
One other second-rounder saw Aussie Jarmila Groth ground Russian Anna Lapushchenkova 6-2, 6-3.
The other quarterfinals will pit sixth-seeded German Andrea Petkovic against Baltacha, Russian Elena Vesnina versus Aussie Anastasia Rodionova and Groth against Russian and reigning Istanbul champion Vera Dushevina, who doused Czech Lucie Hradecka in last year's finale here.
<< Mets take rubber match from Cards thanks to Dickey, Davis
Flushing, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rookie Ike Davis hit a three-run homer and
knuckballer R.A. Dickey went 8 1/3 innings, as the New York Mets earned a 4-0
win over the St. Louis Cardinals in the rubber match of a three-game set at
Citi Fi
<< Kentucky Derby and Preakness winners headline Haskell
Oceanport, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The two leading three-year-old colts in the
country top a field of eight for Sunday's $1 million Haskell Invitational at
Monmouth Park. Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver and Preakness champ Lookin At
Lucky w
<< Pena, Price lead Rays to sweep of Tigers
St. Petersburg, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Carlos Pena went 3-for-4 with a home
run and drove in all of Tampa Bay's runs, as the Rays completed a four-game
sweep of the Detroit Tigers with a 4-2 victory.
David Price picked up his AL-best
<< Orioles hire Showalter as manager
Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Baltimore Orioles have hired Buck
Showalter to be their next manager.
A press conference is scheduled for Monday and Showalter is expected to assume
his role as manager on August 3 to begin a s
Rain wipes out Day 4 in Umag >>
Umag, Croatia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rain washed away Thursday's second-round
schedule at the clay-court Croatia Open.
Second-seeded French Open semifinalist Jurgen Melzer of Austria was scheduled
to face Czech Jan Hajek and third-seede
Howell's 64 leads Irish Open >>
Killarney, Ireland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - England's David Howell fired a seven-
under 64 on Thursday to take the first-round lead at the Irish Open at
Killarney Golf & Fishing Club.
Richard Green and Damien McGrane both posted ro
Tseng and Hull lead Women's British Open >>
South Port, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Yani Tseng and Katherine Hull both
posted rounds of four-under 68 on Thursday to share the first-round lead of
the Women's British Open at Royal Birkdale.
Tseng and Hull both eagled the last
Oswalt traded to Phillies >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Philadelphia Phillies completed their
trade for Roy Oswalt on Thursday, acquiring the pitcher from the Houston
Astros.
The Phillies also received cash considerations, and sent pitcher J.A. Happ
Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.
As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.
The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.
Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).
But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.
Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.
Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:
Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1
Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2
New York Giants - 9 - 2
Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).
Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.
So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.
And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.
They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.
Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.
But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.
Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.
Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.
Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.
Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?
Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.
In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.
Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.
Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.
The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.
The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.
Visit MySportsbook.com for free sportsbook odds RSS feeds go to MySportsbook.com for all your betting football needs.
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