Sports Betting Blog

Much has been said about the 29 –year-old Swiss player that so brilliantly has dominated the sport of tennis since 2003. Seven years after the Federer Express won his first Grand Slam and after surviving one of his most upsetting seasons ever, Roger Federer has completed his way back into the sports headlines by winning the season finale World Tour Championship in the 02 Arena in London.

To keep the dramatic nature of his game, Federer played the Championship game against Rafael Nadal, the Spaniard hot-shot who is currently the No.1 ranked player in the World. A younger player who this season won three Grand Slam and completed his Career Grand Slam when he took over in the US Open.

Roger Federer came strong in the first part of the season. He was outstanding in the Australian Open. He took Andy Murray down in the Championship game by 6-3,6-4,7-6. This was the second time that Federer denied Murray a chance to win a Grand Slam.

But things went south from there on. He fell to Nadal in the Mutua Madrid Final and when it came to play at Roland Garros, for the French Open, Federer failed to qualify in the semifinals for the first time since the 2004 French Open. Robin Soderling would be the man who took him down in the quarterfinals. Nadal went on to win the tournament for the fifth time and replaced Federer as World No 1. Federer was just one week away from equalling Pete Sampras’s record of 286 weeks as World No. 1

Then Came Wimbledon. If someone was expected to put on a great show and a comeback for a disappointing participation at Roland Garros was Federer, as he had been the most dominant force at Wimbledon during the last decade. And then came one of the biggest upsets in his career. Sure, commentators and professionals alike had been talking about how much Federer struggled against Alejandro Falla in the first rounds at Wimbledon, but nobody was really expecting Federer to lose against Thomas Berdych in at Wimbledon’s quarterfinals.

He fell to the No. 3 spot in the World Rankings. He had to bring in his A-game into the court if he wanted to win at the US Open. He avenged his French Open defeat against Soderling but was unable to make it pass Novak Djokovic who played a magnificent 5-set game against Federer. Novak would eventually loose the final to Rafa Nadal. He kept on his rhythm and won important championships. He won at the Stockholm Open and at Basel. With this make he completed his 65th career title, surpassing Pete Sampras who had 64.

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal arguably might be the two best players ever to pick up a racket. Federer is 5 years older the Nadal. Federer has won a record 16 grand slams, and has been a dominant force in the last decade of the sport. As the two players make it into the winter break, all we can wonder is if Federer still got what it takes to get back on the top. Federer will know go on and defend his title at the 2011 Australian Open. If he fails to do so, and Nadal happens to win in the land down under, it might just be the first sign that a new order King of the Slams is in his way to become legendary.

It not only takes a great team to be ranked on the No. 1 spot in the NCAA Football betting season; sometimes you have to get a little luck to make it pass a powerful team and clinch on to the top spot of the BCS ranking for yet another week. This was certainly a good chance for the Oregon Ducks defense to step up and show that the Ducks are not working their way into the BCS National Championship game exclusively on the prowess of its offensive team. The Ducks defense can also walk the walk.

Oregon had to struggle in the road as the California Golden Bears, 5-6 overall and 3-5 in the PAC 10 division, found a way to stall and bring down the Oregon’s offensive end, which this year has been the best in the Nation. The Golden Bears brought Oregon’s offense to a season low 317 yards. And that’s not all, not only did they kept the team from scoring more then one touchdown, they also kept the Ducks scoreless during two quarters. Now, to really get things into perspective, you need to consider that the Oregon Ducks have been hold scoreless on three other quarters so far this season. But California’s defense did the trick and kept the usually pouring offense from shinning.

And then there was the luck factor. At the beginning of the fourth quarter, California had a great chance to complete a 24-yard field goal and get ahead in the score by one point. Even though the junior kicker Giorgio Tavecchio completed the field goal, the Ducks were able to get a huge break in an illegal motion by the Golden Bears’ kicker. Tavecchio took a stutter step forward before the snap and the play was cancelled. As if that was not enough, he then missed a 29-yard try on the following play.

The Bears could have won this game, and they could have really hurt the Oregon Ducks chances of getting into the National Championship Game. They played the game well. To get California’s performance into the right perspective you need to consider that the Golden Bears kept Oregon 40 points beneath their season average. That’s a lot. California had been quite dominant when it came down to defending their home team advantage. But it was just not the case.

Oregon took the win. But it was evident that this was the closest game of the season so far. The Ducks had not won a game by fewer then 11 points this season, and that 15-13 was a clear proof that the Ducks where struggling and just barely managed to win. Sure, they were far from covering the spread, but hey, the Ducks are still a very reliable wagering option. They are 6-4 ATS for the season.

Oregon will now play Arizona as the team tries to keep leading the BCS standings. They shouldn’t struggle that much, as they Ducks are a -19½ point favorite in the spread. Auburn, who currently sits in second in the BCS rankings, will have a very demanding game against the Alabama Crimson Tide. Alabama is a -4½ point favorite on the spread. This could be a great chance for TCU, which is currently third in the rankings to move pass Auburn, if the Tigers are not able to make it pass the Crimson Tide.

Novak Djokovic had a sore spot ever since he fell to Czech Thomas Berdych during the Wimbledon semifinals in July. But it is now payback time, as the talented Djokovic brought in his A-game to the 02 Arena in London in his first match at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals round-robin stage to defeat Berdych in a 6-3, 6-3 matchup.

Djokovic knows his way around this tournament. He had a great tournament during the 2008 season when we went all the way to capture the season finale at Shanghai. In the 2008 final Djokovic went face to face with Nikolay Davydenko and won 6-1, 7-5. The following year, when the tournament made its move from Shanghai to London, Davydenko was able to step up and win the tournament playing the final against Argentine Juan Martín del Potro by 6-3, 6-4.

The ATP World Tour Final is certainly a very different tournament. Contrary to most any other professional ATP sanctioned tournament, the World Tour is not played based on a single elimination knockout stage. The World Tour Finals only calls in the 8 best ranked players at the end of the year.

These eight players are then divided into four players groups. Players in group A and Group B take on a round-robin first stage where they play 3 matches against the other contenders in their group. The two best record holders in each group then make it to the next phase of the Barclays World Tour and into the semifinals. The Winners are awarded up to 1500 ranking points and there is over a 4.5$ million purse.

Djokovic has been very successful this year over hard court surfaces in the ATP circuit. This is his 40th win in hard courts. He has only fallen 10 times in the fast paced hard courts this season. And that surely was evident in the court. Djokovic clearly dominated the 25-year-old Czech throughout the whole match. Berdych committed 19 unforced errors, and from early in the first set, it was evident that he was in trouble. Berdych suffered two double faults in the opening game. From there on there was very little hope for Berdych.

Djokovic arrives to the 02 arena as the No. 3 seed in the tournament. He is really experiencing one heck of a season. He has won 26 of his last 33 games and it really seems as if he might just be able to keep on crunching his opponents.

If you are looking for some wagering on Tennis action, then you probably don’t want to miss on the action on November 23rd. Roger Federer will play Andy Murray while  Robin Soderling will take on David Ferrer. As of press time, Federer is a favorite to win at ML-130 with a comeback of ML+110 for Andy Murray. Soderling is expected to have an easy win over Ferrer. As of press time, Soderling is a ML-230 favorite while the chances for an upset from the Spaniard cashes in at ML+185.

We will keep on bringing extensive coverage of the ATP tennis World Tour Final. This is the last chance of the season you are going to get to wager on ATP tennis. This is a complicated tournament. Even the No.1 ranked player in the world, Rafael Nadal, knows what it is to fail in this tournament. No matter what happens this year, Nadal is probably going to finish the season finale tournament better of then last year when he didn’t win a single set. He lost three consecutive matches, 6 consecutive sets and went home way too early. This is one of those few tournaments when the upset, when risking on the underdog might just pay off.

The Federer Express was outstanding in his 6-1, 6-4 win over the Spaniard David Ferrer on Sunday, in his first game of the ATP World Tour Finals, an end-of-the-season, 8 top players round robin tournament at London. Don’t be fooled by the score, because as a matter of fact, David Ferrer made it much more difficult for Roger Federer to win this game then what the score might suggest.

The Spaniard had not been in the World Tour Finals since the 2007 version when he had an outstanding run for the title that ended prematurely when he was defeated by Roger Federer in the final. Ferrer seemed a bit nervous from the start. He gave into the pressure in the first games and Federer, without missing a beat, broke his service in each of the three chances he had for the first set. By the time the Spaniard pulled his act together and won his first game, he was already trailing 4-0 in the first set.

Then it was uphill from there on. Ferrer gave a great fight but it was just not enough to stay close to Federer. It really seems as if Federer is quite a dominant force in this tournament. Well, you must consider this is his 9th consecutive participation in the season finale, and after his latest game, Federer is now a holder of a very respectable 30-7 record at the World Tour Finals.

Contrary to most any other tournament played in the ATP, this tournament only brings in the top 8 players in the world, and they have to face each other in a round robin. So, really, these top-notch players are not really used to playing such high-caliber contestants so early into the tournament.

This could have been a perfect rematch for the 2007 World Tour Final game at Shanghai, and yet it only took Federer 34 minutes to wrap up the first set. Ferrer never gave up and was fully committed to his cause on the second set. He managed to get 5 break point chances and even pulled two of those in the final game, but was just unable to convert. At the end it only took Federer 87 minutes to clinch the win.

This has been quite an upsetting year for the great Roger Federer. For the first time in many years, not only is he not the dominant force in the sport, but another Spaniard, Rafael Nadal, has been outshining him. Yes, Federer is the King of the Slams, but many sports commentators have even implied that perhaps Federer has been keeping Nadal in the shadow and the younger, fresher Nadal is actually the man who is consolidating his name atop this new era of professional tennis. And that’s got to hurt Federer a bit.

Since his early departure in the quarterfinals a- Wimbledon this year, Federer has had some difficulties in this year. Yes, he was the dominant force in Cincinnati, Stockholm and Basel, defeating Fish, Mayer and Djokovic respectively. But he has also had to pay the price at Toronto and Shangai where he had fall to Andy Murray. So yes, Federer has been struggling a bit this season, and yes, he was nowhere to be seen in the final of Roland Garros, Wimbledon or the US Open. But give him the benefit of the doubt. Federer won the Australia Open early in the year, and that is his 16th Grand Slam title. No one has done that yet.