Top seeded Jankovic falls in Montreal

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08/17/2010 - Montreal, QC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Iveta Benesova, a qualifier from the Czech Republic, upended top-seeded Jelena Jankovic, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, Tuesday at the $2 million Rogers Cup, a U.S. Open tune-up. The event is being played on the hardcourts at Uniprix Stadium.

The former world No. 1, who had reached the final in this event in Toronto in 2007, Jankovic had an opportunity to claim the first set while serving with a 5-3 lead. However, Benesova broke Jankovic and held serve to even the match and eventually force the tiebreak.

Benesova, playing in her first event of the 2010 U.S. Open Series, held serve twice and broke Jankovic again to move in front, 3-0, in the second set. The Serbian closed to within 4-3, but Benesova broke Jankovic again and then served out the match to move into the third round.

Benesova had been winless on Canadian hardcourts in two prior tournaments and had been victorious only twice on hardcourts this season before dispatching Jankovic, the 2008 U.S. Open runner-up.

Meanwhile, form held throughout the day for the rest of the seeded players, as eighth-seed Vera Zvonareva had a much easier go of it in advancing to third round with a 6-2, 6-1 victory of Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan. The Moscow- born Zvonareva was the runner-up to Serena Williams at Wimbledon last month.

Ninth-seeded Li Na of China came back to win the final six games of the second set to dispose of Australian qualifier Jarmila Groth, 6-3, 6-2, to move into third round action.

In first round play, tenth-seeded Victoria Azarenka resumed her recent winning ways with a 6-1, 6-1 opening-round spanking of Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko. The world No. 13 Belarusian titled in Stanford three weeks ago and has now won six of her last seven matches. She dropped her opener in Cincinnati last week.

Former top-five Russian star Svetlana Kuznetsova was a 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 first- round victor over fellow Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on Tuesday. The 11th-seeded Kuznetsova, like has Azarenka, has won six of her last seven outings, including a title in San Diego just two weeks ago.

In other opening-round play involving seeds, No. 15 Italian Flavia Pennetta topped Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova 6-0, 7-5, No. 17 Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli blitzed Canadian wild card Valerie Tetreault 6-1, 6-0, and No. 18 Russian Nadia Petrova held off Czech Lucie Safarova 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.

An all-American first-rounder saw Bethanie Mattek-Sands drive out fellow Fed Cup teammate Melanie Oudin, 6-1, 6-4. The qualifier Mattek-Sands will meet last week's Cincinnati champion Kim Clijsters in the round of 32. The former world No. 1 Clijsters, the reigning U.S. Open champ, is seeded fifth here this week.

Meanwhile, Russian Maria Kirilenko leveled Slovak Dominika Cibulkova 6-0, 6-3 and resurgent Hungarian Agnes Szavay snuck past Argentine Gisela Dulko 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7-3) in round one.

Additional opening-round wins came for Russians Alisa Kleybanova and qualifier Ekaterina Makarova, Japan's Kimiko Date Krumm and Chinese Zheng Jie.

This week's winner will earn $350,000.

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NCAA Football Betting : USC's reward: Top spot in Top 25

NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.

No. 1 always seems to fit USC.

Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.

Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.

Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.

"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."

Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.

"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."

The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.

"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."

Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.

"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"

USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.

"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."

While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.

As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.

But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.

Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.

The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.

The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.

The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.

No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.

Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.

Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.

Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.

The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.

South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.

The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.

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MySportsbook.com and Kentucky Derby Offer Bonuses
The 2008 Kentucky Derby has announced a $1-million bonus for this weekend’s 134th ‘Run for the Roses’ and MySportsbook.com is doing the same.

Well, not quite $1 million, but MySportsbook.com is offering a 75% rebate for Kentucky Derby lines. Check out the exclusive horse racing bonus for all the details.

According to MySportsbook.com, the favorites for Saturday’s Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky are: Curlin (+250); Street Sense (+500); Scat Daddy (+700); Circular Quay (+750); and Nobiz Like Shobiz (+800).

Derby organizers announced this week that there will be a $1-million bonus at the 2007 Kentucky Derby odds if the first-place horse wins by more than 6 1/2 lengths – the margin of Barbaro's victory last year. The bonus would be divided Saturday among the winning trainer, jockey, owner and a charity, with each receiving 25 percent. The designated charity is the Barbaro Memorial Fund.

''It's certainly creative, it's certainly fun and it has something for the horsemen, which we always want to embrace,'' Churchill Downs president and chief executive Robert Evans said at a news conference. ''What's really cool is it will force us to remember Barbaro.''
    
Meanwhile, the Derby favorite – Curlin – is going against the odds this year. It's been 125 years since Apollo won after skipping his 2-year-old season, and not since Regret in 1915 has such a lightly seasoned horse worn the blanket of red roses.

Arkansas Derby winner Curlin – unbeaten in three career races – tries to overcome both those obstacles in Saturday's 133rd Derby.

''We're not running against history,'' trainer Steve Asmussen said Monday. ''We're running against who they load up.''

Six other horses have run in the Derby without benefit of 2-year-old races and with three or fewer starts. The best any of them managed was a sixth-place finish by Showing Up last year.
   
Asmussen dismissed suggestions that Curlin's lack of racing experience could keep him from the winner's circle.

”He exudes confidence and he's got a great presence about him,'' the trainer said. ''I feel great about the position we're in. He's not worried about anything, why should you be?''
   
The Kentucky Derby is at 4:04 p.m., ET Saturday.

For complete odds on the Kentucky Derby, visit MySportsbook.com. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.