Wozniacki, Dementieva and Clijsters win in Montreal

Tennis Betting Lines

08/19/2010 - Montreal, QC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - U.S. Open runner-up Caroline Wozniacki and reigning champion Elena Dementieva were among Wednesday's second-round winners at the $2 million Rogers Cup, a U.S. Open tune-up.

The second-seeded Wozniacki snuck past Swiss veteran Patty Schnyder, a lucky- loser this week, 7-5, 7-5 on the hardcourts at Uniprix Stadium. Up next for the quality Dane will be 15th-seeded Italian Flavia Pennetta.

The fourth-seeded Dementieva topped Czech Klara Zakopalova 6-2, 6-4 to continue here winning ways at this Canadian event. The two-time major runner- up and 2008 Olympic gold medalist Dementieva beat former No. 1 Maria Sharapova in last year's all-Russian Rogers Cup finale in Toronto. This event shifts between Toronto and Montreal each year.

Fifth-seeded Kim Clijsters rallied to win the second and third sets to advance past American Bethanie Mattek-Sands. The Belgian dropped the opening set 6-4 and found herself trailing 4-3 in the second before storming back to win the final three games to force the decisive third stanza. Clijsters, the reigning U.S. Open champ who also won in Cincinnati last week, fell behind 3-2 before in the final set taking the next four games to move into round three.

Meanwhile, sixth-seeded French Open champion Francesca Schiavone of Italy held off Russian qualifier Ekaterina Makarova 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, seventh-seeded Pole Agnieszka Radwanska erased American qualifier Vania King 6-0, 6-3, and 10th-seeded Belarusian Victoria Azarenka handled Russian Maria Kirilenko 6-4, 6-1 on Day 3. The world No. 13 Azarenka titled in Stanford three weeks ago and has now won seven of her last eight matches.

Eleventh-seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova straight-setted Swiss Timea Bacsinszky 7-6 (8-6), 6-4 to corral her seventh win in eight tries. The two- time major titlist Kuznetsova titled in San Diego two weeks ago.

In other action involving seeds, resurgent Hungarian Agnes Szavay toppled No. 13 Belgian Yanina Wickmayer 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 6-4; the aforementioned Pennetta pasted Russian Alisa Kleybanova 6-3, 6-3; unseeded Zheng Jie of China upended 16th-seeded Aravane Rezai of France, 5-7, 7-6 (8-6), 6-1; 17th-seeded Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli received a walkover into the round of 16 when 39- year-old Japanese Kimiko Date Krumm pulled out of the draw, citing a left thigh problem; and unseeded former top-ranked star Dinara Safina picked up a rare 2010 victory by driving out No. 18 fellow Russian Nadia Petrova 7-5, 4-6, 6-4. Safina will meet Schiavone in the round of 16. Szavay has now won 12 straight matches and is seeking her third title in three events, with recent titles coming in Budapest and Prague.

In a battle of non-seeded players, Kaia Kanepi ousted Sybille Bammer, 7-5, 6-2.

This week's winner will earn $350,000.

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NCAA Football Betting : USC's reward: Top spot in Top 25

NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.

No. 1 always seems to fit USC.

Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.

Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.

Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.

"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."

Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.

"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."

The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.

"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."

Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.

"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"

USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.

"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."

While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.

As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.

But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.

Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.

The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.

The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.

The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.

No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.

Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.

Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.

Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.

The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.

South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.

The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.

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