Blake exits, Baghdatis advances at Pilot Pen

Tennis Betting Lines

08/26/2010 - New Haven, CT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two-time champion James Blake was a second-round loser, while top-seeded Marcos Baghdatis was a third-round winner Wednesday at the $750,000 Pilot Pen Tennis event, a final hardcourt U.S. Open tune-up.

The Cypriot Baghdatis, a former Aussie Open runner-up and finalist at the U.S. Open Series event in Washington, D.C. three weeks ago, dropped the first set to 14th-seeded Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina, but rallied to win 1-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Seventh-seeded rising Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov dismissed the wild card Blake in 6-4, 6-2 fashion at the Connecticut Tennis Center at Yale in a match that was suspended because of rain here on Tuesday night. The struggling former top-five star Blake, who grew up in nearby Fairfield, captured New Haven titles in 2005 and 2007.

Dolgopolov also had to play his third-round match on Wednesday, but fell to 10th-seeded Serbian Viktor Troicki 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-1), 6-2.

Mild third-round upsets came when Russian qualifier Teymuraz Gabashvili grounded fifth-seeded Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (9-7) and 12th-seeded Dutchman Thiemo De Bakker drove out eighth-seeded German Florian Mayer 6-7 (2-7), 6-1, 7-5. Lastly, Radek Stepnaek of the Czech Republic downed 16th-seeded Romanian Victor Hanescu 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (4-7), 6-4.

In other third-round play, 15th-seeded Uzbekistanian Denis Istomin held off Slovakian Lukas Lacko 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 and Russian Evgeny Korolev topped Ukrainian Illya Marchenko 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.

Stakhovsky reached the third round with a 2-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-1) come-from- behind victory over Aussie Peter Luczak, while another second-round result saw Troicki handle Finnish veteran Jarkko Nieminen 7-5, 6-3.

The final third-round match between sixth-seeded Tommy Roberdo and ninth- seeded Sergiy Stakhovsky was suspended due to rain with the first set tied 6-6.

The 2010 Pilot Pen champion will collect $93,630.

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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.