Nadal wins; Hewitt bows out in London

Tennis Betting Lines

06/13/2007 - London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top-seeded Rafael Nadal posted a second- round victory, while defending champion Lleyton Hewitt came up a loser Wednesday at The Artois Championships, a grass-court Wimbledon tune-up.

The reigning three-time French Open champion Nadal made a smooth transition to grass with a 6-4, 6-4 win against promising Argentine Juan Martin del Potro on Day 3 at The Queen's Club. The Spanish Nadal won 40-of-46 points on serve en route to victory.

The 2006 Wimbledon runner-up Nadal is fresh off his championship at Roland Garros, where he defeated the great Roger Federer in the final for a second straight year.

The sixth-seeded Hewitt, meanwhile, was stunned by big-serving French qualifier Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-2). The former world No. 1 and former Wimbledon champion Hewitt topped American James Blake in last year's Queen's Club finale and also captured this event back-to-back-to-back from 2000-02.

Three other stars avoided Day-3 upsets here, as third-seeded Chilean Fernando Gonzalez snuck past Serbian Janko Tipsarevic 7-6 (9-7), 4-6, 7-6 (9-7), fourth-seeded Serbian Novak Djokovic overcame American Robert Kendrick 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 and seventh-seeded Russian Dmitry Tursunov doused Canadian Frank Dancevic 7-5, 6-1. Gonzalez was January's Aussie Open runner-up to Federer, while Djokovic was a semifinal loser against Nadal at Roland Garros last week.

A mild upset came when Frenchman Nicolas Mahut topped 11th-seeded Swede Jonas Bjorkman 6-3, 6-7 (2-7), 6-3.

In other second-round action involving seeds, No. 12 Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu got past his countryman Michael Llodra 7-6 (7-4), retired; No. 14 Frenchman Arnaud Clement bested Aussie Chris Guccione 6-4, 6-4; and No. 15 American Robby Ginepri beat Frenchman Florent Serra 6-4, 7-6 (7-3).

Additional second-round wins came for Belarusian Max Mirnyi, Croats Ivo Karlovic and wild card Marin Cilic and British wild card Alex Bogdanovic. The 2005 Queen's Club runner-up Karlovic overcame American qualifier Alex Kuznetsov 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-2).

A bout between eighth-seeded and former world No. 1 Marat Safin and two-time Queen's Club runner-up Sebastien Grosjean was suspended until Thursday. The Russian Safin was tied with the French Grosjean at 3-6, 6-4, 4-4 when play was halted for the day because of rain. Grosjean was the 2003 and 2004 runner-up here to American Andy Roddick.

The third round will be staged here on Thursday, including matches for Nadal, a second-seeded Roddick, Gonzalez and Djokovic. Nadal will encounter Mirnyi, while the three-time Queen's Club champion Roddick (2003-05) will take on Bogdanovic.

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Mayweather picked to beat De La Hoya
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA -- Golden Boy Oscar De La Hoya and his rival Floyd Mayweather Jr. arrived at the MGM Grand here Wednesday amid the pomp and pandemonium befitting two of the biggest stars in the sport who are about to duke it out for the WBC super welterweight crown this Saturday (Sunday in Manila).

As of Wednesday, MySportsbook.com closed its book with Mayweather a favorite to defeat De La Hoya at -170 (a $100 bet wins $70), while De La Hoya is a +140 underdog (a $100 bet wins $140).

Mayweather arrived at about 11:30 a.m. on a big truck with his face and a big "World's Best Pound-for-Pound" sign scribbled across the vehicle. He was accompanied by his entourage made up of rappers and his training team.

A crowd of close to 3,000 eager fans packed the MGM Grand lobby, with their cameras in tow, all trying to vie for position to get a good angle at Mayweather, who is acknowledged as the world's best fighter pound-for-pound.

Eric Gomez, Golden Boy Promotions vice-president, described the fan turnout as "amazing" and swore he had never seen anything quite like this event.

"The crowd was fantastic. Everybody was just too eager to see the two fighters," said ALA manager Michael Aldeguer, who was among those who waited at the lobby together with his ward Rey "Boom Boom" Bautista and AJ Banal.

De La Hoya made his own grand entrance at the hotel lobby at around 12:30 p.m. accompanied by GBP chief executive officer Richard Schaefer and trainer Freddie Roach.

The same group of fans who trooped to see Mayweather also lingered around to get a close look at De La Hoya, who has been secretly working out at a Las Vegas gym for days after arriving from his main training camp in Puerto Rico.

The golden boy then took part in a closed-door afternoon workout with Bautista and Banal. The two, along with Aldeguer and wife Christine, as well as an HBO crew were the only ones allowed inside the gym.

De La Hoya and Mayweather take part in today's final press conference before the official weigh-in this Friday.

Ring Magazine, the acknowledged bible of boxing, reported in its June 2007 issue that 12 out of 20 boxing experts it interviewed have favored Mayweather to defeat De la Hoya, with only 8 favoring the latter.

But Filipino ring icon Manny Pacquiao said in a recent interview with The Freeman's Emmanuel Villaruel that De La Hoya will win by unanimous decision over Mayweather.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on boxing needs.