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Venus Williams, 7^th seed and one of the biggest tennis stars, had a great start at Wimbledon, winning the opener and seems like an excellent candidate for the Grand Slam title. Will this be Venus’ 5^th Wimbledon title?

Williams showed a lot of energy and a great performance, defeating British player Naomi Cavaday 7-6 (5), 6-1. Although Cavaday didn’t seem like a big opponent (she’s ranked 197^th), a tiebreaker was needed, and that’s where Venus Williams was better. It was weird to see Williams so tied-up by a low-profile player, which could concern some tennis betting fans… but in the end she was the winner and that’s what matters, at least for the moment. She’s now going to the Wimbledon second round, very excited and emotional about it.

There’s still more action left to crown any Champions. However, Venus started the Wimbledon tennis tournament with the right foot, no doubt about that. Follow her closely: that’s where your money could be.

Now that NBA games are over and NFL games won’t start yet, it’s a great chance to look to the other events that will have as much adrenaline running as the rest of sports. Tennis betting is high this month with the upcoming Grand Slam event: Wimbledon.

The Wimbledon draft has been made and a lot of interesting things came up for many tennis players. Andy Murray is back in the game (after missing last year’s Wimbledon due to an injury) and will open the  tennis tournament against Fabrice Santoro. Quite a veteran! But at least  he managed to avoid other big figures like Andy Roddick.

Roger Federer, winner of the last 5 Wimbledon tournaments, will have a hard time as a defending Champion. He will have to defeat stars like Novak Djokovic, Juan Carlos Ferrero and Marat Safin. Tough luck!

On the girls’ side, top seed Ana Ivanovic will have a good start and not much to worry about. She won’t have to deal with players like Maria Sharapova until the competition has advanced.

So, that’s how things are. Many options to consider, top-class tennis players and the possibility of winning BIG. Who would turn down a combination like that?

Finally!! As a Boston Celtics fan I’m grateful and relieved. On Tuesday night the Celtics defeated the L.A. Lakers to become the new NBA Champions. The Spurs said goodbye (well, they already had) to their Championship title, since they failed at keeping it this NBA season.

It seems the Celtics parade will take place on Thursday, and Boston will be all-party. After so many years, the Celtics pride is up again! Beating the Lakers wasn’t an easy job, but it was worth the suffering, especially with the smashing 131-92 NBA score they got for Game 6. Not a bad way to restore the victory over the old rivals.

This Boston Celtics parade will also include the place of honor for Paul Pierce, named NBA Finals MVP. Of course, star Kevin Garnett will be there too and get his part of the fuzz. This was all said and done since day 1: the best decision for this 2008 NBA Season was to get Garnett and Pierce .. and make the best triplet with them and Ray Allen. These guys took Boston to the top! A winning formula that not even Kobe Bryant can defeat.

Well, too bad to say, but this means NBA will be over for a good while. It was fun while it lasted. Now it’s time to get ready for the NBA draft and, of course, the 2008 NFL Season that will begin in August!

Boston Celtics betting fans could catch their breath again when the NBA team gave one more step to the 2008 NBA Championship on Thursday. However, Sunday put things on doubt again when the Lakers had another victory, creating one more game for the NBA Championship.

The L.A. Lakers certainly didn’t expect that kind of comeback in Game 4 after what happened in Game 3, where Kobe and his team got some hope with a victory. Not only the Celtics won Game 4, but also did it with a glorious strike after being down for 20 points during a good part of the game. And we thought the Lakers were the experts at coming back from the bottom!

But when the Celtics seemed to be just one step away from final victory, they let it go again… at home!  The global score is 3-2 now, and tonight we’ll see if Game 7 will be necessary.

Will that be some kind of stunt to make more money by having to play more NBA games? Probably. But I’m starting to get worried about the money I thought I would have by now! What’s the matter with the Celtics? Tonight is decisive: if they don’t take the trophy as the NBA Champions 2008, anything could happen on Game 7. Anything.

Many wagering fans were disappointed when Big Brown screwed up at Belmont Stakes, making them hesitate with special events and stick to the traditional sports betting. But I hope they change their minds now that the 2008 Golf US Open is coming.

For starters, it will be easy to follow the event with Prime Time coverage on ESPN and NBC. According to the US Open TV schedule, the action will be on air this Thursday since 1pm ET, and extending even to 10pm on the first rounds.

But the most important reason for you to stay tuned will be the tight competition at the golf tournament with several stars that assure this will be their year. Phil Mickelson is one of the big contenders, and others could give a huge surprise like Jim Furyk. Don’t underestimate this guy, even though he seems to be a plain dog in the US Open betting lines! His record is actually good enough to expect a good performance.

Of course, those players (and all the rest) will be somehow outshined by the return of top golf player Tiger Woods, who’s been out of the golf course since April, due to a knee surgery. Everybody is over Woods to see how he does at Torrey Pines, and basically waiting for him to be a reason for scandal and news coverage. The U.S. Open is just about to start and they’re already nagging him over nothing! Just a simple comment made by him about Phil Mickelson (where Tiger did nothing but say good things about him) seemed to pull the trigger and have everybody saying his remarks were racist and he wouldn’t have spoken like that if Mickelson were African-American. Seriously! Is it me or Golf people need a life? They really dig too deep and try to find controversy and outrageous scandals on any little, meaningless thing.

Anyway, the forecast looks really interesting for golf betting fans, and the ones that haven’t showed much interest in it, maybe should give it a try. Get ready to tee off!!

The Boston Celtics really knew how to take advantage of those first games at home. Last week it was celebration all over Boston, where the Celtics set a 2-0 score over the L.A. Lakers for the 2008 NBA Finals.

According to the NBA schedule, Tuesday night will be the Lakers’ turn to start catching up at their own court. They have all the pressure upon them and even though they will be playing 3 games at home, they basically have to win this game. No doubt the NBA odds don’t favor the Lakers right now after 2 games ending in 98-88 and 108-102, and they will have to prove everybody wrong.

Sure, it’s not impossible at all to turn the results upside down. There’s still plenty of chance for the Lakers to turn the NBA Finals scores into a 4-2 or something like that. But the Celtics are strong and they have the lead now. Nothing’s set on stone yet, but if the NBA game 3 odds are right and Boston wins, it would almost be a good-bye for the Los Angeles team.

Will the underdog step up and defeat the smashing favorite? Let’s see if the Lakers can put up some fight at home.

MLB games haven’t been hightlighted news lately. The bad part is that the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays maybe managed to get more attention than the NBA Finals today… but it was because of an awful fight.

Thursday night had more than baseball action on Fenway Park, when it suddenly turned into something that seemed an unexpected boxing match. During the second inning, we could watch Rays pitcher James Shields throw a low ball that hit Boston’s Coco Crisp on the hip. This seemed to be enough for Coco Crisp to drop the bat and run to beat the hell out of Shields. Crisp had to dodge a punch from James Shields and then everyone jumped in, some to try to stop it and others to throw a few punches themselves.

Here’s the video of the violent “boxball” incident.

The tension remained obvious, floating all over the place, and that became clear at the end of the fourth inning, when Manny Ramirez and Kevin Youkilis had a fight of their own. This one seemed to be less violent, but it still was unpleasant to everyone watching the game.

Apparently this comes from the previous Red Sox-Rays game, where some “fouls” seemed to be on purpose and that lead to people upset, talking about the others. Really, is this a way to get some attention from the media? Are the MLB guys so sick of being outshined by Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant these days that they have to beat each other to be more interesting?

These definitely aren’t the best days for baseball betting players and fans.

Let’s face it: these won’t be easy NBA Playoff games at all. We’re talking about two big forces, facing each other, trying to take an early lead no matter what. Tonight the challenge begins at Boston, 9PM ET. The Celtics will have to win this game if they want to increase their chances to be the NBA Champions.

Even if they didn’t imagine that before, Boston has reasons to fear the Lakers and their lethal comeback techniques during NBA Playoffs. The Celtics not only have the advantage of being the best team during this NBA Season, but will also have the relief to begin the NBA Finals at home. The NBA betting odds place the Celtics as favorites, even though the Lakers are a serious threat.

We can’t forget the fact that every time a team gets too confident, the L.A. Lakers take advantage of it, so nothing is said and done yet. The underdog could surprise us this time, since their agressive strategy has been working amazingly.

Tonight, the Boston Celtics will have to take advantage of their own court, and try to take this lead. The NBA Finals odds are not enought to guarantee an NBA Championship title. They will have to be careful every minute of this game if they don’t want to be crushed by the last-quarter Lakers train.

Kobe Bryant used to nickname himself (in his classic arrogant style) the “black mamba”, just like the deadliest snake on Earth. He said at that time that he chose that nickname because of the snake’s accuracy of every strike, which was the level he wanted to reach. Many NBA betting players that have seen him play lately agree that he finally is good enough to be called the Lakers’ Black Mamba.

The 2007-2008 NBA Season had been mostly owned by the Boston Celtics: these guys had a great start and managed to stay glued to the top, taking the Eastern Conference Championship title. However, during these last games, the L.A. Lakers jumped into the scene stronger than ever, proving that the Celtics would have a real opponent for these Playoffs.

Now it all comes down to these 2 NBA teams, and things are so interesting that there are no certainties of who could win yet. Lakers and Celtics disputing the NBA Finals is actually a tradition many had forgotten, and it will be re-born. The all-season favorite will have to face a team that seems to be stomping over everyone on their way. Kevin Garnett, Boston Celtics’ star, will have a face-to-face encounter with Kobe Bryant, this year’s MVP and the most impressive player so far, to the point that some are already comparing him to unbeatable basketball legend Michael Jordan. Those kind of comments will be reflected on the NBA basketball betting odds, for sure.

Will the Black Mamba’s venom be enough to stop Garnett? We will know that on Thursday. NBA betting fans, make your basketball picks!

Kobe Bryant did it again. Thanks to the MVP, the L.A. Lakers became the Western Conference Champions and jumped right into the NBA Finals on Thursday with a 100-92 score.

Once more, the Defending Champions started with a great advantage, but probably got too confident about it. And if there’s something the Lakers -and especially Kobe- have proved to us during these NBA Playoffs, is that they’re great at comebacks. During the fourth quarter, the Spurs were swept out by Kobe Bryant (who scored 17 points just in that quarter). Bryant scored a total of 39 points during the game. Definitely the Lakers’ hero!

The Spurs’ defense has become weaker and that was an important factor on this last victory. Not even Tim Duncan’s triple-double was impressive enough to stop the Lakers’ effort.

Now it all comes down to the final challenge: the fight for the 2007-2008 NBA Championship title. Their opponent has not been chosen yet, but judging by the current results, we could end up enjoying a full-action match between Los Angeles and the Boston Celtics. Who would want to miss that?

Source: NBA.com