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01/11/2012 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 2012 tennis season will be in full stride when the Australian Open gets underway next week in Melbourne, where Novak Djokovic and Kim Clijsters will be on hand as your defending champions.
The 24-year-old Djokovic ascended to No. 1 last year partly because he captured his second Oz Open title in four years. He straight-setted Andy Murray in last year's finale, three years after topping Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the 2008 championship round Down Under.
The former No. 1 Clijsters, meanwhile, missed a majority of last season due to a series of ailments. But before old age started to set in, Kimmy nailed down her first-ever Aussie title by coming from behind to stop veteran Chinese slugger Li Na in three sets in the women's final.
The 28-year-old Clijsters was an Aussie runner-up to her fellow Belgian great Justine Henin in 2004.
Djokovic, who frustrates all with his brilliant return game, blew everyone away during his brilliant 2011 campaign, going 70-6 and claiming three major titles and an ATP-record five Masters championships in one season.
He'll head to Melbourne without the benefit of having played in an ATP- sanctioned event over the first two weeks of this newest season.
Clijsters was tuning up for the Aussie last week when she was forced to pull out in Brisbane due to a hip injury. The three-time U.S. Open champ was battling Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova in a semifinal matchup when she called it a week in the second set, after capturing the opening stanza.
Also on hand in Melbourne for the men will be other top contenders like former champions Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer and last year's runner-up Murray.
The 25-year-old and 10-time major champion Nadal was the runner-up to Djokovic in last year's Wimbledon and U.S. Open finals, and also gave way to the amazing Serb in no less than four Masters title tilts in 2011.
The 2009 Aussie titlist and reigning French Open champion Nadal has bowed out in the quarterfinals at Melbourne Park the last two years.
The 16-time major champion Federer is seeking his first Grand Slam title since claiming the 2010 Aussie Open. The sublime Swiss has failed to title in his last seven majors and missed out on a Grand Slam title last year for the first time since 2002.
The 30-year-old Federer owns an Open Era record-tying four Aussie Open titles (matching Andre Agassi) and was the runner-up to his great rival Nadal in Melbourne three years back.
Federer was sizzling hot to close out his 2011 season, however, winning his last 17 matches and seizing a trio of titles, one of which was the season- ending one at the prestigious ATP World Tour Finals in London.
FYI: Federer, of course, is the men's all-time leader with those 16 majors and six Tour Finals championships. (Maybe he IS the best ever.)
The Fed, who was a semifinal loser last year in Melbourne, pulled out of an Aussie tuneup in Doha last week, as he was scheduled to meet the aforementioned Tsonga in a semi there when he decided to exit the draw with a nagging back injury. The 2011 French Open runner-up claims to be okay for Melbourne, as the pull-out in Doha was more precautionary than anything else.
The talented Murray is a three-time major finalist but has yet to breakthrough with that elusive first-ever Grand Slam title. He succumbed to Djokovic in last year's Aussie finale and fell to 0-9 in his career sets played in championship matches at Slams. Murray was also an Aussie finalist in 2010, but was swept out by the great Federer.
Murray opened his 2012 season in style by titling on a hardcourt in Brisbane last week and has a real chance at running the table in Melbourne, especially if any of the "Big Three" falter.
FYI: The last British male to win the Aussie Open was Fred Perry way back in 1934 (or 78 years ago).
The currently 12th-ranked Clijsters can expect challenges from a bevy of hungry women, especially current world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki, Wimbledon champ Petra Kvitova, Wimbledon runner-up Maria Sharapova and 13-time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams.
Wozniacki, like Murray, is still searching for a Grand Slam championship. She was a semifinal loser in Melbourne a year ago, which marked her best-ever showing in Oz.
The likeable Dane was also a semifinalist at the U.S. Open last year, but hasn't reached a major final since the 2009 U.S. Open (her only one), where she lost to Clijsters. She's No. 1 in the world despite failing to ever capture a Grand Slam title and not reaching a major final in her last eight tries.
The left-handed Kvitova could be the woman to beat in Melbourne, as the Czech slugger closed out her 2011 campaign in red-hot fashion. She co-led the WTA (along with Wozniacki) with six titles last year and capped her season with 12 straight match wins, including a title at the exclusive season-ending WTA Championships in Istanbul.
Wozniacki and the 2011 Aussie quarterfinalist Kvitova were the top seeds at this week's final Aussie Open tuneup in Sydney, where Kvitova would overtake Wozniacki as the No. 1 player in the world with a title. Wozniacki was a quarterfinal loser Wednesday in Sydney, while Kvitova was into the semifinals at the time of this column.
The three-time major champion Sharapova captured her lone Aussie title four years ago, but hasn't gotten past the fourth round there since.
The 24-year-old world No. 4 Shaza was last year's Wimbledon runner-up to the powerful Kvitova, and also appeared in a French Open semi last spring.
Like Clijsters, the all-time great Serena will also be limping into Melbourne, as the American powerhouse pulled out of the tournament in Brisbane last week while citing an ankle injury. The former No. 1 star won her second-round match against young Serb Bojana Jovanovski in Brisbane, but then announced her exit from the draw later in the day.
Serena still hopes to play Down Under, but by no means has she suggested that it's 'all systems go' at this point.
The 30-year-old future Hall-of-Famer, currently ranked 13th in the world, hasn't won a major title since Wimbledon of 2010, as she's been slowed by a series of health issues since that particular championship.
The 2011 U.S. Open finalist is an Open Era-record five-time Aussie Open champ, including a big win there just two years ago, and a perfect 5-0 in her career finals in Melbourne.
There are plenty of other men who you would expect to have quality Aussie Opens, including world No. 5 David Ferrer, last week's Doha champion Tsonga and towering Argentine Juan Martin del Potro.
Ferrer is just about always in the mix, on any surface, while Tsonga boasts one of the best games on the tour and del Potro appears to be 100 percent healthy after coming all the way back from wrist surgery. Ferrer was an Aussie Open semifinalist a year ago; the world No. 6 Tsonga was a Wimbledon semifinalist last year and reached the Aussie final in '08; and the former top-four star and currently 11th-ranked Delpo is the top seed in Sydney this week.
The honorable mention guys for the first major of the year are big Czech Tomas Berdych, American Mardy Fish, Serbian Janko Tipsarevic, American Andy Roddick, and rising Canadian Milos Raonic, who tallied his second career ATP title last week by besting the world No. 9 Tipsarevic in a final in Chennai. Raonic is now up to No. 25 in the world, and if he can stay healthy his next stop will be the top 10 for sure.
There are some other women who have a shot to win it all in Melbourne, including world No. 3 Wimbledon semifinalist Victoria Azarenka, the French Open champion and 2011 Aussie runner-up Li, and U.S. Open titlist and heavy Aussie favorite Samantha Stosur, who has actually struggled to open this '12 campaign.
A dark horse on the women's side could be world No. 11 Francesca Schiavone, who's appeared in the last two French Open finals and won one. She's a battler on any surface.
Tenth-ranked German Andrea Petkovic, who quietly reached the quarterfinals at three of the four majors last year and typically celebrated with that tacky "Petko Dance," which, thankfully, she has decided to scrap for 2012, pulled out of the Aussie this week because of a back injury.
As for seven-time Grand Slam champ Venus Williams, she'll miss the Aussie as she continues to battle Sjogren's Syndrome, an incurable but treatable, autoimmune disease that causes fatigue and joint pain. The 31-year-old star missed most of 2011 while battling the condition and other injuries.
FYI: The men's singles champion in Melbourne will capture the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup, while the women's winner will clutch the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup.
Picks ----- I like Djokovic to continue his major winning ways and pick up Aussie title number three, while my selection on the women's side is going to be Kvitova, who will become the No. 1 player in the world sooner rather than later.
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My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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