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06/11/2007 - London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Swedish veteran Jonas Bjorkman, 12th-seeded Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu and 15th-seeded American Robby Ginepri were among Monday's first-round winners at The Artois Championships, a grass-court Wimbledon tune-up.
The 11th-seeded Bjorkman, a 2006 Wimbledon semifinalist, held off American Justin Gimelstob 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, while Mathieu snuck past Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3 and Ginepri handled Brit Richard Bloomfield 6-4, 6-2 at The Queen's Club.
Fourteenth-seeded Frenchman Arnaud Clement also advanced by besting Spaniard Ivan Navarro Pastor 7-6 (7-2), 6-4.
Mild upsets came when Colombian Alejandro Falla took out 10th-seeded Frenchman Julien Benneteau 7-5, 6-3, Brit Alex Bogdanovic beat 13th-seeded Korean Hyung- Taik Lee 6-4, 6-4 and Belarusian Max Mirnyi erased 16th-seeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 6-3.
Argentine Juan Martin del Potro dismissed former Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson of Sweden 6-2, 6-4, while Czech Radek Stepanek bested Italian Davide Sanguinetti 6-2, 2-0, retired.
Other first-round winners were France's Michael Llodra and Nicolas Mahut, Thai Danai Udomchoke, Aussie Chris Guccione and Britain's Jamie Baker.
This week's top seeds are reigning three-time French Open champ Rafael Nadal, former world No. 1 American Andy Roddick, Aussie Open finalist Fernando Gonzalez of Chile and Roland Garros semifinalist Novak Djokovic of Serbia. Roddick was the back-to-back-to-back Queen's Club champion from 2003-05. The Spanish sensation Nadal will open his stay here against del Potro, while Roddick will encounter Stepanek.
Sixth-seeded Aussie Lleyton Hewitt is the defending Artois champ. The four- time titlist defeated American James Blake in last year's finale.
<< Vakulenko, Kirilenko advance in Birmingham
Birmingham, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ninth-seeded Ukrainian Julia Vakulenko
and 16th-seeded Russian Maria Kirilenko posted Day-1 wins at the $200,000 DFS
Classic.
Vakulenko vaulted past Chinese Tiantian Sun 6-2, 6-1, while Kirilenko cut
<< This Week in Golf - June 14th through June 17th
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - UNITED STATES GOLF ASSOCIATION -
U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP, Oakmont Country Club, Oakmont, Pennsylvania - The best
in the world head to one of the top courses in the United States this weekend
for the second ma
<< Rags to Riches for Todd Pletcher
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It took 102 years for the third filly to
win the Belmont Stakes. It also took a female to upstage the plight of trainer
Todd Pletcher. Amid countless Eclipse Awards and stakes victories by the
score, the fo
<< Lions' Rogers being investigated for sex crime
Detroit, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Detroit Lions star defensive tackle Shaun
Rogers is reportedly being investigated for an alleged sex crime.
The Detroit Free Press said that police are investigating the former Texas
star for an incid
Montana State tabs Ash to lead football program >>
Bozeman, MT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Montana State has named Rob Ash as its new head
football coach.
Ash spent the past 18 seasons at Drake University and also coached at Division
III Juniata College for nine years. He has an overall coaching
Schiavone, Shaughnessy reach second round in Spain >>
Barcelona, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top-seeded Italian Francesca Schiavone
and sixth-seeded American Meghann Shaughnessy highlighted Monday's first-round
winners at the inaugural $145,000 Barcelona KIA tennis event.
Schiavone was leadin
Austin up to No. 81 in world rankings >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Woody Austin jumped 92 places to No. 81 in
the latest Official World Golf Ranking following his win Sunday at the
Stanford St. Jude Championship.
In Europe, Richard Green's victory at the BA-CA Ope
Legendary Vols coach Ray Mears passes away >>
Knoxville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The winningest coach in University of
Tennessee history, Ray Mears, died Monday at NHC Health Care Center in
Knoxville. He was 80 years old.
The Dover, Ohio native led the Vols to a 278
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.
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