Kvitova, Sharapova reach QFs; Serena shocked at Aussie Open

Tennis Betting Lines

01/23/2012 - Melbourne, Australia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova and former Melbourne titlist Maria Sharapova reached the quarterfinals, while five-time titlist Serena Williams was a stunning fourth-round upset victim Monday at the Australian Open.

An error-prone Williams was knocked out by Russian Ekaterina Makarova 6-2, 6-3 on Day 8 of the fortnight.

The 12th-seeded Williams misfired for 37 unforced errors and double-faulted seven times in her 82-minute setback at Rod Laver Arena.

"I'm not physically 100 percent, so I can't be so angry at myself, even though I'm very unhappy," said Williams, who suffered an ankle injury a few weeks ago. "I know that I can play a hundred times better than I did this whole tournament."

The 23-year-old Makarova will now appear in her first-ever major quarterfinal, and it will come against her compatriot Sharapova on Wednesday.

Barely able to get her first serve in half the time, Williams tallied 20 of her errors and four of her double faults in the second set.

"She went for broke on a lot of her shots. I made 37 errors," Williams said. "That kind of tells the story of the match."

Makarova called Williams "a great player" and said she was surprised to beat her.

"It's really tough to play against her," Makarova said. "But, I don't know, I just feel so good and so focused. So I played my game, and that's it. I won against Serena. That's amazing."

Williams owns 13 major titles, including five here in Melbourne. She was riding a 17-match winning streak here, having captured back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010 before missing last year's Grand Slam of the Pacific because of health reasons.

Meanwhile, the second-seeded Czech Kvitova continued her winning ways with a 6-2, 7-6 (7-2) straight-set win over 21st-seeded former world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic of Serbia. The match ended in 85 minutes at Laver.

The former French Open champion Ivanovic was the 2008 Aussie runner-up to Sharapova.

The 21-year-old Kvitova, who beat Sharapova in last year's Wimbledon finale and is also the reigning WTA Championships titlist, fired seven aces among her 30 winners, converting three of her six break points, and moved on to face Italian Sara Errani, who cooled off Chinese Zheng Jie 6-2, 6-1. Zheng had won her first eight matches of 2012, including a title in Auckland to open her season.

The women's quarters will commence Tuesday, as top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki will meet 11th-seeded reigning Aussie Open champ Kim Clijsters and third- seeded Victoria Azarenka will encounter eighth-seeded Pole Agnieszka Radwanska.

The former world No. 1 Clijsters is 2-0 lifetime against Wozniacki, as the Belgian bested the Dane in the 2009 U.S. Open final and the 2010 Tour Championships title tilt.

Azarenka is 6-3 versus Radwanska, including a victory in a semifinal in Sydney two weeks ago. The Belarusian went on to title in Sydney.

Clijsters beat Chinese Li Na in last year's finale to capture her first-ever Aussie title and fourth Grand Slam championship.

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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

NFL Betting Lines

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