Serbs, Belgians even after first day at Fed Cup
Tennis Betting Lines
02/04/2012 - Charleroi, Belgium (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Serbia and Belgium are even after the first day of play at their Fed Cup quarterfinal.
Jelena Jankovic gave Serbia the first point on Saturday with a 7-5, 7-5 win over Kirsten Flipkens, but Yanina Wickmayer pulled the hosts even in the best- of-five tie with a 6-4, 6-4 triumph over Bojana Jovanovski.
The players had to fight through cold conditions, even though the matches were played indoors, as temperatures outside the Spiroudome were on the negative side of freezing. Overnight snow also affected the building's heating system.
Flipkens, ranked 176th, had plenty of chances to upend the former world No. 1 Jankovic in the opening match. However, she managed to convert just 2-of-11 break-point chances.
Wickmayer was looking at a potential third set in the day's second match, but rallied from a 1-4 deficit in the second by winning the final five games.
The winners from Saturday will square off in the first reverse singles match on Sunday, as Jankovic will face Wickmayer. Flipkens and Jovanovski are slated for the second singles match, while Jankovic is also scheduled for doubles duty with Aleksandra Krunic against the Belgian duo of Tamaryn Hendler and Alison Van Uytvanck.
Belgium owns one Fed Cup title, while Serbia is still in search of its first championship. The Belgians are 2-0 all-time versus the Serbs.
The winner will face the Russia-Spain victor in the semifinals in April.
Worcester, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Reigning Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka withdrew from her Fed Cup match with a lower back injury on Saturday. She will be replaced by teammate Anastasiya Yakimova, but she is still elig
<< Italy and Ukraine even after opening day at Fed Cup
Biella, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Italy and the Ukraine are surprisingly even
after Saturday's opening singles matches of their Fed Cup quarterfinal.
The matchups and home court clearly favored the Italians and Sara Errani gave
the hosts
<< Kvitova, Benesova lift Czechs to lead over Germany
Stuttgart, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Petra Kvitova and Iveta Benesova each
won three-set thrillers to give the Czech Republic a commanding 2-0 lead over
Germany in its Fed Cup quarterfinal.
Benesova gave the defending Fed Cup champions
<< Hawks C Collins out at least 2 weeks
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Atlanta Hawks center Jason Collins will miss a
minimum of two weeks with a sprained left elbow, the team announced Saturday.
Collins was injured in the first quarter of Thursday's loss to the Grizzlies.
He i
<< Kings, Warriors meet again in Sacramento
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - In-state rivals meet for the second time this week when the
Sacramento Kings play host to the Golden State Warriors.
The Warriors just finished up a lengthy six-game homestand by beating
Sacramento on Tuesday by
Montpellier, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tomas Berdych and Gael Monfils were semifinal winners Saturday and will meet for the title at the Open Sud de France tennis tournament. The top-seeded Berdych had little trouble in a 6-3, 6
Georgetown cruises past South Florida >>
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Henry Sims had 13 points, nine rebounds and
five assists, as No. 14 Georgetown cruised past South Florida, 75-45, on
Saturday.
Otto Porter added 12 points and Jason Clark finished with 11 for the
Syracuse thumps St. John's as Boeheim ties Dean >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fab Melo returned to the Syracuse lineup after
a three-game absence and the sophomore center paid immediate dividends with 14
points, as the second-ranked Orange controlled the paint and rolled to a 95-70
victory
Advantage City as Citizens edge Cottagers >>
Manchester, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Manchester City went top of the Premier
League on Saturday after defeating Fulham, 3-0, on a snowy night at the
Etihad.
The Citizens take a three-point lead in England's top tier as riv
Bayern held by Hamburg at Imtech Arena >>
Hamburg, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bayern Munich fell two points off the pace
of first-place Borussia Dortmund on Saturday after it was held to a 1-1 draw
at the Imtech Arena by Hamburg.
Borussia Dortmund claimed sole possession of first
FOOTBALL TRASH TALK
NFL Football Trash TalkTrash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).
Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.
Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).
Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.
Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.
The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.
What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.
Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.
But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.
In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.