Almagro stays hot in Buenos Aires; Ferrer rolls into round two

Tennis Betting Lines

02/21/2012 - Buenos Aires, Argentina (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fresh off his title in Sao Paulo last week, reigning Buenos Aires champion Nicolas Almagro continued his winning ways Tuesday with a first-round victory at the Copa Claro tennis event.

The second-seeded Almagro fought back to beat Italian Potito Starace 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) in 2 hours, 7 minutes on the red clay at Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club.

Almagro topped Argentine favorite Juan Ignacio Chela in last year's Buenos Aires finale and bested Italy's Filippo Volandri in last week's title tilt in Sao Paulo.

Up next for the world No. 11 Almagro will be Argentine Federico Delbonis.

Top-seeded David Ferrer of Spain breezed to a 6-1, 6-0 win over Argentine qualifier Andres Molteni, who was making his ATP World Tour main draw debut ranked No. 237. Ferrer, who was the runner-up here in 2010, has a 9-1 match record on the season. He opened the year with a title in Auckland.

Meanwhile, third-seeded Frenchman Gilles Simon handled Portuguese Rui Machado 6-3, 7-5, fifth-seeded Argentine favorite Juan Monaco leveled the aforementioned Volandri 6-1, 3-1, retired, and seventh-seeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco dismissed France's Eric Prodon 6-4, 6-1. Monaco titled here in 2007 and was the runner-up in 2009.

An upset came when Spaniard Albert Ramos upended an eighth-seeded Chela 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Argentine David Nalbandian, who was the Buenos Aires titlist in 2008, cruised to a 6-2, 6-3 win over American lucky loser Wayne Odesnik.

Additional Day-2 wins came for the qualifier Delbonis, Russian qualifier Igor Andreev and Frenchman Benoit Paire.

The 2012 Buenos Aires champion will earn $82,900.

Plaurio Tennis Betting News

<< Pervak, Erakovic win in Memphis
Memphis, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - No. 2 seed Ksenia Pervak was an easy first- round winner Tuesday at the $220,000 Memphis International tennis event. The Russian Pervak handled Canadian Rebecca Marino 6-2, 6-4 on the indoor hardcourts

<< Georgetown names Marino offensive coordinator
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Georgetown University football coach Kevin Kelly announced Tuesday that Vinny Marino has joined the staff as the offensive coordinator. Marino has 20 years of coaching experience, including the last six as

<< Ex-Brazil boss Luxemburgo to coach Gremio
Porto Alegre, Brazil (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ex-Brazil coach Vanderlei Luxemburgo was named new boss of Gremio on Tuesday, one day after Caio Junior was fired. Luxemburgo will be officially introduced Thursday, when the 59-year-old will begin

<< Sporting, U.S. defender Onyewu suffers knee injury
Lisbon, Portugal (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sporting Lisbon and U.S. defender Oguchi Onyewu has suffered a torn ligament in his right knee and will be sidelined two months, the Portuguese club announced Tuesday. The 29-year-old Onyewu was injur

<< Auburn's Fortner to resign at season's end
Auburn, AL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Auburn women's basketball coach Nell Fortner will resign as head coach at the end of the 2011-12 season, the university's director of athletics Jay Jacobs announced on Tuesday. Fortner has served as the te

Lecavalier has broken hand, out indefinitely >>
Tampa, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Tampa Bay Lightning will have to continue their playoff push without captain Vincent Lecavalier, who will be sidelined indefinitely due to a non-displaced fracture in his right hand. Lecavalier sat out

No. 12 Florida clamps down in second half, beats Auburn >>
Gainesville, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kenny Boynton scored 20 points and No. 12 Florida pulled away in the second half to beat Auburn, 63-47, on Tuesday. Bradley Beal and Erving Walker added 13 points apiece for the Gators (22-6, 10-3 SEC

Seton Hall upends No. 9 Hoyas >>
Newark, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jordan Theodore scored a career-high 29 points on Tuesday, leading Seton Hall to a 73-55 toppling of No. 9 Georgetown. Herb Pope added 12 points, while Brandon Mobley and Fuquan Edwin both had 10 for the P

Buckeyes roll over Illinois >>
Columbus, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Deshaun Thomas scored 19 points and grabbed five boards as eighth-ranked Ohio State took down Illinois, 83-67, on Tuesday. William Buford added 17 points and Aaron Craft contributed 11 for the Buckeyes (23-

Miller backstops Sabres over Islanders >>
Buffalo, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Buffalo's Ryan Miller made 30 saves in Tuesday's 2-1 win over the Islanders. Tyler Myers and Thomas Vanek both scored while Derek Roy and Jason Pominville had two assists apiece for the Sabres. They h

FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).

Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.

Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).

Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.

Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.

The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.

What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.

Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.

But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.

In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.