Federer, Roddick, Nadal reach third round in Montreal

Tennis Betting Lines

08/09/2007 - Montreal, QC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top-seeded and defending champion Roger Federer and former champs Andy Roddick and Rafael Nadal were among Wednesday's second-round winners at the $2.45 million Rogers Masters -- the sixth of nine Masters Series events this year.

Federer needed a pair of tiebreaks to top 6-foot-10 Croat Ivo Karlovic 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-3) at Uniprix Stadium.

The reigning Wimbledon, U.S. Open and Australian Open champion Federer defeated France's Richard Gasquet in last year's Rogers Masters finale in Toronto. This event alternates between Montreal and Toronto each year.

Federer, who will face Italian Fabio Fognini in the third round here on Thursday, also captured this event, in Toronto, in 2004.

Nadal, the reigning French Open champion, survived a first set tiebreaker against Marat Safin and then cruised in the second set, winning 7-6 (7-4), 6-0. Safin captured this popular Canadian event in 2000 while the second- seeded Nadal, who will next face Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu, won in Montreal in 2005.

The fifth-seeded Roddick got past pesky Frenchman Arnaud Clement 6-1, 7-6 (7-5) on the hardcourts here. With a win against Marcos Baghdatis in the next round, Roddick will pick up the 400th match victory of his career.

Last year's US Open runner-up Roddick, fresh off his title last week in Washington, DC, titled here in Montreal in 2003 and was the 2002 and 2004 runner-up in Toronto.

Roddick currently leads in the standings for the US Open Series, which links 10 summer events to the US Open, creating a cohesive, six-week summer tennis season for the ATP and WTA Tour's professional tournaments in North America. It runs for six weeks and culminates with the US Open.

Fourth-seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko reached the third round by holding off Finland's Jarkko Nieminen 6-3, 7-6 (7-5). Up next for the Russian will be his 14th-seeded countryman Mikhail Youzhny, a 6-4, 6-4 victor against Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka.

Upsets came when Slovakian Dominik Hrbaty humbled seventh-seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo 6-2, 6-4 and unseeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco came from behind to oust an eighth-seeded Gasquet 3-6, 7-6 (9-7), 6-4. Robredo was last week's titlist in Poland.

Two-time major titlist and former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt of Australia advanced to the third round without even lifting his racquet on Day 4, as ninth-seeded American James Blake pulled out of their scheduled match due to an abdominal strain.

Twelfth-seeded German Tommy Haas, who corralled his 400th career ATP victory here on Tuesday, was leading qualifier Michael Russell 6-3, 3-0 when the American retired due to a back problem.

More upsets came when the qualifier Fognini erased 13th-seeded Scotsman Andy Murray 6-2, 6-2 and Argentine David Nalbandian took out 16th-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer 7-6 (7-4), 6-1. Murray returned to ATP action just this week after being sidelined with a wrist injury for three months. Nalbandian, the 2003 runner-up to Roddick at this tournament, will battle third-seeded Serbian Novak Djokovic here on Thursday.

Canadian crowd favorite Frank Dancevic moved on by beating American Wayne Odesnik 6-3, 4-6, 7-5.

The 2007 Rogers Masters titlist will collect $400,000.

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Big East Conference odds

Work left to do: Villanova, Syracuse, DePaul, West Virginia, Providence

Notre Dame and Louisville appear to have done enough to make the move, so we'll make them locks. The Cardinals, despite a modest RPI, are trending way up and have clinched at least a tie for third in the Big East, which should be more than enough with their pair of big road wins. Villanova got back to .500 and gets back to more solid footing. Syracuse got a very important road win and crippled a fellow contender in the process. West Virginia's fate could be in its hands Tuesday at Pitt.

Work left to do:

Villanova [18-9 (7-7), RPI: 21, SOS: 5] Pounded Rutgers to get back to .500. If Cats can get their last two (at UConn, vs. Syracuse), that should be enough with strong computer numbers and a host of wins away from The Pavilion. The Cats have beaten Texas and swept the Big 5 (never easy in Philly), but have a couple of losses to bubble teams (Xavier, Drexel), too. I still think they'll be OK, possibly even at 8-8.

Syracuse [20-8 (9-5), RPI: 53, SOS: 62] History says 10 wins will be plenty, but it might be hard for the Orange to get that last one with a final two vs. G'town, which is trying to win the league title, and at Villanova, which will be desperate for a W. The relative lack of nonconference heft and the weak computer numbers are still concerns, but the Orange have won four in a row and got a very, very big win at Providence on Saturday.

DePaul [16-12 (8-7), RPI: 54, SOS: 18] Beat Cincy and should get past South Florida to get to 9-7, but then what? They have beaten Kansas and Cal (right after the DeVon Hardin injury) earlier this season, but also have lost to Bradley and Purdue, among others. They'll likely need a couple of BE tourney wins, too, but we'll see ...

West Virginia [19-7 (8-6), RPI: 58, SOS: 125] The game at Pitt on Tuesday night could decide the Mountaineers' fate (barring a deep tournament run). They can still get to 9-7 in the Big East without it by beating Cincinnati, but the nine wins would be against UConn, Villanova, St. John's, South Florida, DePaul, Rutgers, Seton Hall twice and the Bearcats. Beating bubble foes is fine, but where's the beef? Outside of beating PG-less UCLA in nonconference play (still a top quality win), there's not a lot to fall back on (besides maybe NC State). WVU vs. Syracuse would be an interesting debate, as the teams don't play in the Big East regular season. WVU has the best win, but Cuse has played the much better schedule.

Providence [17-10 (7-7), RPI: 70, SOS: 33] The Friars likely saw their at-large hopes die at home in the four-point loss to Syracuse, barring an unexpected run to the Big East semis or more. The RPI, bad already, won't be helped by playing St. John's and South Florida in the final two league games.

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