Ivanovic, Serena, Venus reach round two at the Open

Tennis Betting Lines

08/26/2008 - Flushing Meadows, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - World No. 1 Ana Ivanovic, former top-ranked star Serena Williams and Venus Williams were among Tuesday's first- round winners at the U.S. Open.

The Serbian Ivanovic, who's battled a thumb injury in recent weeks, snuck past Russian Vera Dushevina 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 on a beautiful sunny day at this Big Apple fortnight. A fourth-seeded Serena, meanwhile, subdued Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko 6-1, 6-4.

Ivanovic appeared to be cruising on Day 2, up a set and leading 4-2 in the second, but some sloppy play allowed her Russian counterpart to sneak into the match.

Dushevina fought back to claim the second set and was leading 3-2 in the third before Ivanovic righted the ship. The Serbian star went on to capture the third by converting on a third match point after 2 hours, 3 minutes of uneventful tennis.

Ivanovic is the reigning French Open champ and was this year's runner-up at the Australian Open. She's played in three of the last six major finals.

Up next for Ivanovic will be little-known Frenchwoman Julie Coin.

The eight-time major titlist Serena handled Bondarenko in a mere 57 minutes, capping the win with a second match point. The powerful American captured the U.S. Open in 1999 and 2002 and was the runner-up here in 2001.

Seventh-seeded Venus, who is a two-time U.S. Open champ, had no problems against Australian Samantha Stosur 6-2, 6-3. Venus owns seven major titles, including the last two Wimbledons.

Ivanovic and Serena were joined in the second round by surging Russian star Dinara Safina, who handled American teenager Kristie Ahn 6-3, 6-4 on the grounds at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The sixth-seeded Safina was the French Open runner-up to Ivanovic and the runner-up at the Olympic tennis tournament two weeks ago.

Safina, the younger sister of 2000 men's U.S. Open champion Marat Safin, will face Italian Roberta Vinci in the round of 64.

Ninth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland cruised with a 6-4, 6-2 pasting of Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova, while an upset came when former Top-20 German Anna-Lena Groenefeld grounded 11th-seeded Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova 6-4, 6-2. The former Top-10 Hantuchova has now dropped eight of her last 12 matches and hasn't won back-to-back matches since March.

In other action involving Top-16 seeds, No. 13 Hungarian Agnes Szavay topped American Gail Brodsky 7-5, 6-3 and No. 16 Italian Flavia Pennetta overcame Swiss Stefanie Vogele 2-6, 6-2, 6-2.

No. 17 seed Alize Cornet of France dispatched compatriot Camille Pin 7-5, 6-0; No. 18 seed Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia bested American Jill Craybas 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) and 19th-seeded Russian Nadia Petrova brushed aside France's Olivia Sanchez 6-2, 6-4 at the fourth and final major of the year.

Additional seeded victors were No. 20 Czech Nicole Vaidisova, No. 27 Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko, No. 30 Japanese Ai Sugiyama and No. 32 Amelie Mauresmo, while Swiss Timea Bacsinszky upended 31st-seeded Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano 6-4, 6-1.

Other first-round winners were the aforementioned Coin, Romanian Ioana Raluca Olaru, Taipei's Su-Wei Hsieh and Yung-Jan Chan, Chinese Shuai Peng, Aussie Jessica Moore, Italians Vinci and Tathiana Garbin, Belarussian Olga Govortsova, Germany's Sabine Lisicki, Paraguayan Rossana De Los Rios, Estonian Kaia Kanepi, France's Severine Bremond, American Bethanie Mattek, Russian Elena Vesnina and Colombian Mariana Duque Marino.

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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.