02/08/2010 - Rotterdam, The Netherlands (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - French Open runner-up Robin Soderling and fifth-seeded Tommy Robredo highlighted Monday's first-round winners at the $2 million ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament.
The third-seeded Soderling came from behind to beat France's Florent Serra 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, while Robredo straight-setted Dutch wild card Robin Haase 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 on the indoor hardcourts at Ahoy' Stadium.
The world No. 8 Soderling, a 2008 Rotterdam runner-up, avoided opening his 2010 season with three straight losses by coming back to top Serra with the help of 26 aces.
In other Day-1 action, Andreas Seppi defeated qualifier and fellow Italian Stephane Bohli 6-1, 7-5, German Florian Mayer outlasted Serbian Janko Tipsarevic 6-3, 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (8-6), and Dutch qualifier Igor Sijsling surprised German Mischa Zverev 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 7-5.
This week's top seeds are world No. 2 Novak Djokovic and Russian star Nikolay Davydenko, who will open his stay here against last week's Johannesburg titlist Feliciano Lopez. The Serbian Djokovic will meet Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky here on Tuesday.
Andy Murray, who is not defending his title this week, upset Rafael Nadal in last year's blockbuster Rotterdam finale. Nadal is also not part of this week's field.
The 2010 Rotterdam champion will claim $380,000.
<< Blue Bombers sign RB Marc
Winnipeg, MB (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Winnipeg Blue Bombers announced Monday
that they have agreed to terms with running back Emmanuel Marc.
Marc participated in Winnipeg's training camp in 2009 and graduated from
Delaware State in
<< Rachel Alexandra staying loose in Big Easy
New Orleans, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Less than 12 hours after the New Orleans
Saints captured Super Bowl XLIV, the other champion residing in the Big Easy
took to the track for a jog.
Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra took a jog aroun
<< Yankees add Thames to outfield mix
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Yankees have reportedly added
Marcus Thames with a one-year contract worth $900,000 if he makes the team.
SI.com and the New York Post reported the signing. Thames is expected to
compete
<< Gainey steps down as Canadiens GM, Gauthier takes over
Montreal, QC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Montreal Canadiens general manager Bob Gainey
has decided to step down from his post and hand the reins over to Pierre
Gauthier, the club announced on Monday.
"After a long and difficult period of
Wizards/Hawks rescheduled for March 11 >>
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Washington Wizards home game against
the Atlanta Hawks, postponed Saturday to a blizzard in the nation's capital,
has been rescheduled for March 11 at the Verizon Center.
Both teams were unable to
Raiders name Pendergast assistant coach >>
Alameda, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Oakland Raiders hired Clancy Pendergast as
an assistant coach on Monday.
Pendergast's role was not made clear in the team's release on the hiring.
Pendergast was fired as the defensive coordinator in
Saints' Super Bowl victory most watched event in TV history >>
New Orleans, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Approximately 106.5 million people tuned in
to watch Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints win Super Bowl XLIV over the
Indianapolis Colts, making it the most watched event in television history.
The ga
Devils D Salmela leaves game on stretcher >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - New Jersey Devils defenseman Anssi Salmela
left Monday's game against Philadelphia on a stretcher early in the second
period.
Salmela, who rejoined the Devils from the Thrashers in the Ilya Kovalchuk d
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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