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05/22/2009 - Kitzbuhel, Austria (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - French lucky-loser Julien Benneteau and Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez were Friday's semifinal winners at the clay-court Austrian Open.
Garcia-Lopez ousted the last remaining seed here, No. 7 Russian Mikhail Youzhny, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (7-5), while Benneteau handled Spain's Oscar Hernandez 6-3, 6-4 at this final French Open tune-up. Garcia-Lopez needed 2 hours, 23 minutes to upend Youzhny.
The 74th-ranked Garcia-Lopez will play in his first-ever ATP World Tour final on Saturday.
The 27-year-old Benneteau, ranked 45th in the world, is 0-2 in his previous ATP finals, which came in Casablanca and Lyon last season.
Benneteau is 1-0 lifetime against the 25-year-old Garcia-Lopez, with the victory coming at the 2006 Australian Open.
Saturday's winner will collect $100,000.
<< AL West: Rangers missing Hamilton
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Texas Rangers entered this week's series in Detroit
with wins in seven straight games and 13 of their last 15 overall.
But star center fielder Josh Hamilton missed all three games because of a sore
groin muscle, and Te
<< Hull happy to have fate in their own hands
Hull, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - All eyes will be focused on the relegation
battle as the Premiership season comes to a close on Sunday, and one of the
biggest matches that will determine who survives will take place at the KC
Stadium
<< Bondarenko, qualifier reach Warsaw final
Warsaw, Poland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Saturday's final at the $600,000 Warsaw
Open will pit eighth-seeded Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko against upstart
Romanian qualifier Alexandra Dulgheru.
The world No. 39 Bondarenko handled Britain
<< Rangers set to clinch first title in four years
Dundee, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Celtic's run of three successive Scottish
Premier League titles will come to an end on Sunday if Rangers can beat Dundee
United at Tannadice Park.
The Old Firm rivals entered last weekend level on 80 poin
Australia fined for Davis Cup decision >>
London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The International Tennis Federation has
decided to fine Tennis Australia for its decision not to travel to India for a
Davis Cup zonal match in Chennai.
The ITF levied a fine of $10,000, but did
Blue Bombers sign RB Smith to extension >>
Winnipeg, MB (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Winnipeg Blue Bombers signed running back
Joe Smith to a contract extension on Friday. Terms of the agreement were not
disclosed.
"Joe has proven his worth in the Canadian Football League," said Winnipe
Bordeaux poised to end 10 year title drought >>
Bordeaux, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It has been eight years since a team other
than Lyon has been on the verge of clinching the Ligue 1 title, but that is
where Bordeaux finds itself entering Saturday's home contest against Monaco.
A win
Tigers' Ordonez activated from bereavement list >>
Detroit, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Detroit Tigers outfielder Magglio Ordonez has
returned to the team after a stint on the bereavement list.
Ordonez left the team on Monday and missed three games to be with his wife,
who underwent surgery.
Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.
As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.
The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.
Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).
But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.
Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.
Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:
Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1
Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2
New York Giants - 9 - 2
Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).
Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.
So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.
And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.
They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.
Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.
But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.
Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.
Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.
Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.
Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?
Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.
In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.
Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.
Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.
The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.
The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.
Visit MySportsbook.com for free sportsbook odds RSS feeds go to MySportsbook.com for all your betting football needs.
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