Djokovic, Murray, Ferrer advance at Aussie Open

Tennis Betting Lines

01/19/2012 - Melbourne, Australia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Last year's champ Novak Djokovic and runner-up Andy Murray, as well as fifth-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer, were each winners on Thursday, advancing to the third round of the Australian Open.

Djokovic, the tournament's top seed, rolled past Colombia's Santiago Giraldo 6-3, 6-2, 6-1. The world No. 1 player has now won 34 of his last 36 Grand Slam matches and is seeking a third straight Grand Slam title and a third Aussie crown.

Murray, the two-time runner-up defeated Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin, 6-1, 6-4, 6-4, at Hisense Arena in a little under two hours.

Ferrer had a little more trouble in his match, dropping a hard-fought first set before outlasting American Ryan Sweeting 6-7 (4-7), 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. Sweeting recorded nine double faults and hit 73 unforced errors in the loss.

Also on Thursday, France's Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, the tournament's sixth seed, defeated Ricardo Mello of Brazil 7-5, 6-4, 6-4 in straight sets, and ninth- seeded Serb Janko Tipsarevic took down Australia's own James Duckworth 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.

A pair of seeded players were ousted in the tournament's fourth day as 32- seeded Russian Alex Bogolomov dropped the first two sets of his match before taking the next two, but faltered in the fifth set to take a marathon 6-1, 6-3, 4-6, 5-7, 6-4 defeat at the hands of France's Michael Llodra. Spain's Marcel Granollers, the 26th seed, was defeated by Portugal's Frederico Gil 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.

In other matches Thursday, 23rd-seeded Canadian Milos Raonic downed Germany's Philipp Petzschner 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, 7-5, Argentina's Juan Ignacio Chela, the 27th seed, rolled to a 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 decision over Spain's Pablo Andujar and Nicolas Mahut of France earned a 1-6, 7-6 (8-6), 6-2, 6-2 decision over Japan's Tatsuma Ito.

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Big Ten Conference odds

Teams that should be in: Michigan State, Indiana
Work left to do: Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Iowa

Behind the big two, the pecking order might be in a bit of flux. Has Michigan State passed Indiana after handling the Hoosiers in East Lansing? Where is Illinois in that mix? What looked like a four-big league last week could be morphing into five -- and even six is not unthinkable at this point if everything breaks right.

Should be in:

Michigan State [21-8 (8-6), RPI: 20, SOS: 15] The Spartans made it four-for-four on the homestand, a gigantic accomplishment that leaves them in extremely good shape. MSU is only 1-6 on the road and is at Michigan and at Wisconsin to close things out, meaning the date with the Wolverines on Tuesday looms very, very large. Beating Texas early will hold up well, as will the rout of Bradley and the win over BYU, but will 8-8 be enough? It very well could be, as the computer numbers are good, but why chance it?

Indiana [18-9 (8-6), RPI: 24, SOS: 32] Hmm ... good thing the last two are at Northwestern and home to Penn State, because IU might want to get both to feel completely safe after dropping its third in the last four, fading after halftime at Michigan State. Who knew the best nonconference win would be over Southern Illinois, which is a gift that keeps on giving for the Hoosiers. The win over Wisconsin also looks good on the mantel.

Work left to do:

Illinois [21-9 (9-6), RPI: 31, SOS: 25] A good performance at Penn State leaves the Illini in pretty good shape. Can they go to Iowa and take care of business to really look on their way? That's a huge game, as there is a possible cluster of teams that will end at 9-7. Illinois beat Bradley, but has lost to Xavier. A 9-7 mark and a semifinals trip in Chicago could be enough with the computer profile hanging in there, but it would be better not to mess around, clinching at least a tie for third.

Purdue [18-10 (7-7), RPI: 47, SOS: 28] Couldn't get it done at Iowa, but did win at Northwestern to put 9-7 squarely in sight. Where does that leave the Boilermakers, though? Even if they beat Minnesota and Northwestern at home, that won't help the computer numbers. Nonconference wins over Virginia, DePaul and Oklahoma are solid, but not spectacular. The Boilers very well might need an upset in the B10 quarters to have a legit claim.

Michigan [19-10 (7-7), RPI: 55, SOS: 53] Well, Michigan did what it needed to do, winning at Minnesota to take control of its fate. The Wolverines have Michigan State and an already-wrapped-up-the-league Ohio State at home to close, so the chances are there. Win both and we can talk. There is no marquee win yet in the profile, and the Wolverines were splattered in several games against name opponents. A mediocre computer profile fueled by a lack of road wins isn't helping, either.

Iowa [16-12 (8-6), RPI: 80, SOS: 64] For the sake of being complete, we'll add Iowa, this season's Stanford. It's plausible that the Hawkeyes could get to 10-6 (at Penn State, vs. Illinois left), but where does that leave them after a gruesome nonconference performance where the best win was over ... Toledo? Iowa State? Cornell?? If they get to 10-6, we can start to look at what they need to do in the B10 tourney, although my gut sense is that they would need to make the final and have knocked off Ohio State or Wisconsin on the way to have any real claim.

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