Davydenko reaches Masters Cup semis

Tennis Betting Lines

11/13/2008 - Shanghai, China (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fourth-seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko defeated seventh-seeded Argentine Juan Martin del Potro in straight sets on Thursday to reach the semifinals at the $4.45 million Tennis Masters Cup.

Davydenko prevailed in 87 minutes in easy 6-3, 6-2 fashion against the 6- foot-5 del Potro, who made his Masters Cup debut this week. Davydenko went 2-1 in this week's Gold Group round-robin action and will now play in Saturday's semifinals, while del Potro settled for a 1-2 mark and is done for the week.

The gritty Russian jumped out to 4-1 leads in both sets and was never challenged on Day 5. Davydenko broke del Potro no less than four times, while allowing only one break against, and the big-hitting Argentine failed to record even one ace in defeat, compared to five for the winning Russian.

Davydenko is now 2-1 lifetime against del Potro, including a 1-1 mark this year. The Argentine beat the Russian in a Davis Cup semifinal tie back in September.

The 20-year-old del Potro will represent Argentina in next week's Davis Cup final against visiting Spain in Mar del Plata. His fine ATP season featured four straight tournament titles at one point just before the U.S. Open.

In another Gold Group match on Day 5, sixth-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga picked up his only win of the week by overcoming second-seeded Serbian star Novak Djokovic 1-6, 7-5, 6-1 in 1 hour, 38 minutes on the indoor hardcourt at Qi Zhong Stadium. Tsonga popped seven aces and broke Djokovic on three occasions.

The bout marked a rematch of January's Australian Open final, which was won by Djokovic. Tsonga, however, wound up winning three of their four encounters for the year, including three straight and a victory at the Paris Masters just two weeks ago.

The 23-year-old Tsonga, like del Potro, was also making his Masters Cup debut this week. He went 1-2 in the Gold Group, while the group-winner Djokovic was 2-1 and had already booked a spot in Saturday's semis. The Serb was 0-3 in last year's round-robin portion.

The ever-improving Tsonga went 8-5 against Top-10 competition this season.

Red Group round-robin play will wrap up here on Friday when top-seeded Swiss Roger Federer (1-1) meets third-seeded Brit Andy Murray (2-0) and eighth- seeded Frenchman Gilles Simon (1-1) battles Czech alternate Radek Stepanek (0-1), who joined the field on Wednesday when fifth-seeded American star Andy Roddick (0-1) pulled out due to an ankle injury. Federer and Simon are still trying to secure a semifinal berth, while Murray has already qualified for the final four. Stepanek will not play here beyond Friday.

The 13-time major champion Federer, who has won the last five U.S. Opens, is a four-time overall and two-time defending Masters Cup champion. The Wimbledon and French Open runner-up beat Spaniard David Ferrer in last year's finale here in Shanghai and is the only former Masters Cup champion in this year's field.

Federer and Murray will meet in a rematch of the U.S. Open final, which was won by the super Swiss. Murray, however, is 3-2 lifetime against Federer, including a 2-1 record this season.

The red-hot 21-year-old Murray has won 16 of his last 17 matches overall, including titles in St. Petersburg and Madrid.

Murray and Simon, like Tsonga and del Potro, are Masters Cup rookies.

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.