Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting
06/17/2007 - London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - American Andy Roddick saved a match point and rallied for a three-set victory over unseeded Frenchman Nicolas Mahut to capture the Artois Championships at the Queen's Club.
The second-seeded Roddick earned a 4-6, 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (7-2) triumph to claim the Wimbledon tuneup event for the fourth time in five years.
"It's nice winning at tournaments that you really enjoy playing at," said Roddick. "I think this place is and will continue to have a special place in my heart just because I have so many great memories from here. To have won four is great. I'll have a number of chances to get five."
The former world No. 1 won this crown three straight years from 2003-05, but has still yet to parlay it into a Wimbledon championship.
Roddick was a semifinalist at the All-England Club after his Queens victory in 2003, then reached the Wimbledon final in both 2004 and '05. Last year, he lost in the semifinals at the Queen's Club and only made it as far as the third round at Wimbledon.
Sunday's win allowed Roddick to join John McEnroe, Boris Becker and Lleyton Hewitt as four-time winners at the Queen's Club. The other three have all won on the hallowed grounds of Wimbledon.
This year's third Grand Slam event begins a week from Monday.
Mahut, who beat three-time French Open champ and last year's Wimbledon runner- up Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals, was in position to pull off another huge upset.
After taking the first set, Mahut was ahead in the tiebreak and had a match point at 7-6, but Roddick stormed back to win the next three points.
The third set also went the distance and Roddick simply dominated the tiebreak. He won the first five points and finally closed out the match with his 24th ace.
"I don't know if I was on top up until maybe 3-0 in the breaker," added Roddick about how he played Sunday. "I felt like I returned pretty well. That was just a volleying display I felt like he put on there today. I was lucky to get out of there."
Roddick earned a first prize of $107,000 for his first title of 2007. He had just one previous appearance in a final, losing to Tommy Haas in Memphis in February, and was coming off a dreadful clay season that ended with a first- round loss at the French Open.
Mahut, meanwhile, was playing in his first career ATP final. Ranked 106th in the world, he entered this event with a record of just 6-11 in singles play and will now try to qualify for Wimbledon next week.
"I'm really disappointed," stated Mahut. "I was one point away to put my name on the trophy. It's one of the greatest tournaments of the tour. You know, I had match point. It's really hard now."
Roddick improved to 2-0 lifetime against Mahut, also prevailing on carpet two years ago in Lyon.
<< Carmona, Indians top Braves to avoid sweep
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fausto Carmona pitched seven-plus strong
innings, as the Cleveland Indians avoided a three-game sweep with a 5-2
victory over the Atlanta Braves at Jacobs Field.
Carmona (8-2) gave up two runs
<< Toronto hammers Hoops
Toronto, Ontario (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Toronto FC scored a franchise-high four
goals en route to a 4-0 win over FC Dallas at BMO Field on Sunday.
Maurice Edu, Danny Dichio, Carl Robinson and Jeff Cunningham each found the
back of the ne
<< Zimmerman, Nationals down Blue Jays
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ryan Zimmerman homered to help the Washington
Nationals avoid the sweep by edging the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-2, at Rogers
Centre.
Frank Thomas made some history in defeat, hitting his 244th home run a
<< Reds' Phillips injures hand
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Cincinnati Reds second baseman Brandon
Phillips left Sunday's game against Texas with an injured hand.
Phillips was hit on the left hand by a pitch from Texas starter Kevin Millwood
in the bottom of
Tracy helps D-Backs complete sweep of O's >>
Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chris Snyder went 1-for-3 with a home run
and a pair of RBI and Chad Tracy drove in the go-ahead run with a single, as
Arizona swept Baltimore with a 6-4 victory in the finale of a three-game
interle
Madrid wins La Liga as Reyes sparks late rally >>
Madrid, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jose Antonio Reyes came on as a second-
half substitute and scored two goals to help Real Madrid claim its first La
Liga title since the 2002-03 season with a 3-1 win against Mallorca at Estadio
Santiag
Millwood strikes out 10 as Rangers pound Reds >>
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kevin Millwood struck out 10 for his first
win in more than two months and Marlon Byrd drove in three runs with a double
and a homer, as the Texas Rangers notched an 11-4 victory over the Cincinnati
Reds in
Edwards wins for first time since 2005 >>
Brooklyn, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Breaking a 52-race winless streak, Carl
Edwards captured Sunday's Citizens Bank 400 at the Michigan International
Speedway. The No.99 Roush Fenway Racing Ford driver crossed the finish line
more th
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.
Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting