Soccer betting

David Nalbandian dropped the first set before going on to beat Xavier Malisse of Belgium 4-6, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (3) in the first round of the Stockholm Open on Tuesday.

The Argentine will next face Ivan Dodig of Croatia, who beat Adrian Mannarino of France 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5).

American James Blake beat Belgiums Olivier Rochus 7-6 (6), 6-3 and will face second-seeded Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina in the second round.

South Africas Kevin Anderson also needed tiebreakers to win against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-6 (1), 7-6 (4), and will face German veteran Tommy Haas in the second round.

Jarkko Nieminen, who reached the final of the tournament in 2009, beat Romanias Marcus Copil 6-3, 7-6 (4) to set up a second round matchup with Switzerlands Stanislas Wawrinka.

Milos Raonic of Canada edged out Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 7-6 (5), 6-7 (4), 6-4 in the last match.

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Veteran Tommy Haas of Germany advanced to the second round of the Stockholm Open on Monday by beating Somdev Devvarman of India 7-6 (4), 6-4.

Haas, ranked 290th in the world and playing on a wild card after coming back from injury, will play either Kevin Anderson or Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the second round.

Phillip Petzschner of Germany also advanced with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over Lukasz Kubot of Poland.

Petzschner broke Kubots serve twice to win the first set and saved three break points before taking the second.

Top-seeded Frenchman Gael Monfils and second-seeded Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina enter the tournament in the second round later in the week.

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Defending champion Andy Murray defeated David Ferrer 7-5, 6-4 to win the Shanghai Masters on Sunday, ensuring hell vault past Roger Federer to No. 3 in the ATP rankings.

The Scot, currently ranked fourth, has made finishing the season at No. 3 one of his main goals for the end of the year. It will be the first time Federe just before he won his first Wimbledon title.

Murray has been unbeatable during the autumn Asian swing of the ATP tou and Shanghai.

He has also won 25 of 26 matches since mid-August, the only loss coming to Nadal in the semifinals of the U.S. Open.

After accepting the trophy on court, Murray said a few words to the crowd in Chinese. “Da shi, shi bu ke dang,” which roughly translates to “Masters are unstoppable.”

Murrays reached a career-high ranking of No. 2 in 2009 but has never finished the year higher than No. 4. Federer reached the final in Shanghai last year but skipped this years tournament, costing him valuable points.

The 30-year-old Federer, who will finish a season without a Grand Slam title for the first time since 2002, is expected to return for the Swiss Indoors in Basel but still has to defend a number of points to defend after winning the ATP World Tour Finals in London last year.

“Im still not guaranteed to finish at No. 3. Im still going to have to win some more matches,” Murray said. “But if you finish in front of Federer in a year, then theres not many people the last five, six, seven years that have been able to say that.”

Murray bel is closing.

“I dont feel like Im that far away,” the Scot said. “I just have to play better. Theres nothing else to say. I can win against Rafa. I can win against Novak. I just have to play better against them in the five setters.”

The fifth-ranked Ferrer had rallied in saving three match poin but he couldnt manage it against Murray, whom he has never beaten on hard courts.

Murray got an early boost by breaking Ferrers serve in the first game of the match, but the Scot gave the advantage right back by making a string of unforced errors to drop serve in the next game.

Both players then began to find their strokes, engaging in lengthy rallies from behind the baseline a style of play more suited to Ferrer, the clay-court specialist.

But serving at 5-5, Ferrer h to give Murray the break. The Scot hit two aces in the next game to close out the set.

Ferrer dropped his serve immediately to start the second set, but again, Murray squandered the break, double-faulting twice to drop serve himself, slamming a ball off the court in anger afterward.

The Spaniards momentum was halted in the third game, however, when he missed an easy overhead into the net to give Murray another break. He only won five more points on Murrays serve the rest of the way.

“I was really happy with the way I stayed focused,” Murray said. “Its hard to explain. Its almost youd think the more matches you win, the less pressure you feel. I was hitting the ball well, but theres still a little bit of tension because you want to try and keep the run going.”

Murray and Ferrer are separated by just one place in the rankings, but the Scot was the heavy favorite coming into the match. He had won all four of his previous matches against the Spaniard on hard courts, including two this year - in the semifinals of the Japan Open last week and in the semifinals of the Australian Open.

Murray won his eighth Masters-level tournament overall and his second of the year after Cincinnati. Ferrer was attempting to win his first Masters tournament.

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Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova eased past Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-2 Friday to reach her seventh semifinal of the season at the Generali Ladies.

The top-seeded Kvitova will play Jelena Jankovic for a place in Sundays final. The third-seeded Serb defeated Russian qualifier Evgeniya Rodina 6-2, 6-4.

Kvitova, a winner of four events this season and ranked a career-high fourth, took a 4-0 lead against Hantuchova.

“I have enjoyed every match so far here and I am starting to play really well,” Kvitova said. “Thats important with (the WTA Championships in) Istanbul and the Fed Cup (final) coming up.”

Jankovic trailed 1-2 in the opening set against Rodina before winning seven straight games. Jankovic, seeking her first title of the season, lost serve once in the second set but broke again at 4-4 and closed out the victory with a love game.

Also, Dominika Cibulkova rallied to beat Anastasia Rodionova 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-1 to reach her third WTA semifinal of the season. Cibulkova will play Lucie Safarova, who defeated Sorana Cirstea 7-5, 6-2.

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Novak Djokovic will finish the year as the top-ranked player in the world.

The ATP says the Serb clinched the year-end top spot after No. 2 Rafael Nadal lost in the third round at the Shanghai Masters on Thursday.

Nadals loss to Florian Mayer ensured that Djokovic cannot be overtaken before the end of the year.

The 24-year-old Djokovic becomes the first player other than Roger Federer or Nadal to finish a year as No. 1 since Andy Roddick of the United States in 2003.

Djokovic has been No. 1 since winning Wimbledon in July. Hes won 10 titles this year, including his second Australian Open and first U.S. Open.

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Andy Roddick rolled into the Shanghai Masters quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Spains Nicolas Almagro on Thursday.

The 10th-seeded American hit 10 aces and 23 winners against the seventh-seeded Spaniard, who has won three titles this year to Roddicks one.

Almagro needed to win to boost his chances of making the ATP Tour World Finals in London. Hes currently in ninth place in the standings, one spot below the last qualifying position. Roddick is far behind in 20th place.

The match was played under the roof at the main stadium at Qizhong Tennis Center because of rain.

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American Mardy Fish was upset by Australian teenager Bernard Tomic 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 Tuesday in the second round of the Shanghai Masters.

The 18-year-old Tomic broke the ninth-ranked American twice to win the second set in 31 minutes. Fish fought off three more break points in the third set before Tomic was converted on his fourth chance to go up 5-4.

The result hurts Fishs chance of qualifying for the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London.

Americans Andy Roddick, Ryan Harrison and Alex Bogomolov Jr. advanced. Roddick edged 20-year-old Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 7-6 (3), 7-5. The 19-year-old Harrison beat 11th-seeded Viktor Troicki 6-3, 6-3, while Bogomolov Jr. defeated Marcel Granollers of Spain 6-2, 6-3.

Stanislas Wawrinka stopped Donald Young of the United States 6-7 (5), 7-6 (2), 6-2.

Tomic, who lost to Fish in the quarterfinals of the Japan Open last week, is having a breakout season. He reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon and cracked the top 50 in the rankings this week at No. 49.

“I cant expect much more for myself. Ive had a good last six months. Im playing well here,” he said. “I think you just gotta play tennis, have fun. Thats what I realized, not to have a lot of pressure.”

Roddick came back from a break down in the second set to tie 4-4 when Dimitrov put a backhand into the net after slipping at the end of a 43-stroke rally.

The Bulgarian broke back in the next game, prompting an angry Roddick to slam his racket into his tennis bag during the changeover.

“I dont know that I made a first serve that game, so that was frustrating for me,” Roddick said. “I felt like I was returning pretty well and hitting my forehand pretty well. Then all of a sudden, you know, Im not putting a first serve in the court.”

Roddick saved a set point on Dimitrovs serve before breaking his opponent at love to close out the match.

“Hes definitely got all the shots,” Roddick said. “He should have closed me out in the second set.”

Dimitrov finished with 28 winners, nearly twice as many as Roddick, but also had 51 unforced errors.

Roddick will play seventh-seeded Nicolas Almagro of Spain, who defeated countryman Tommy Robredo, 7-5, 6-3.

Almagro, who has won three titles this year, is trying to clinch one of the four remaining spots at the ATP World Tour Finals.

The only other seeded players to fall Tuesday were two Serbs - 11th-seeded Troicki and ninth-seeded Janko Tipsarevic.

Tipsarevic lost to Feliciano Lopez 7-6 (2), 7-6 (3), his second straight first-round defeat after capturing his first ATP title in Kuala Lumpur last month.

Florian Mayer, seeded 15th, knocked out David Nalbandian, 6-3, 6-4. Nalbandian, a former Wimbledon finalist, has struggled since returning from a hamstring injury this summer.

Other winners included Milos Raonic, who came back to defeat Michael Llodra, 6-7 (2), 6-2, 7-6 (5), as well as eighth-seeded Gilles Simon, 12th-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov and 14th-seeded Jurgen Melzer.

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Andy Murray rallied to beat Rafael Nadal 3-6, 6-2, 6-0 in the Japan Open final Sunday.

Murray overcame losing the first set to win his second straight ATP tour victory.

Murray, the Scottish star coming off a victory last week in Bangkok, broke his Spanish opponent in the fourth game of the second set, then won 11 of the next 12 games at Ariake Colosseum.

“There was a lot of close games in the first set and early in the second set, then I started to get the momentum and didnt give him any chances,” Murray said. “I played some great tennis, especially in the third set.”

Nadal, the 2010 winner, had beaten Murray five straight timesh, and hadnt lost a service game in the tournament.

“Rafa is one of the greatest players ever,” Murray said. “It is always a pleasure to play against him.”

The title was the fourth-ranked Murrays 20th overall and fourth of the season after triumphs at Queens Club, Cincinnati and Thailand.

In the final set, Murray broke Nadal three times, behind a combination of forehand winners and unforced errors by the Spaniard.

“He played unbelievable in the third set with no mistakes,” Nadal said. “His returns were impressive. After I had my chances in the second set, he started playing at a very high level.”

Nadal is 3-7 in finals this season, with the first six of the losses coming to Novak Djokovic.

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Dinara Safina says she hasnt made a final decision on her tennis future, contradicting her brother Marat Safins announcement that she had retired.

The former top-ranked player tells her followers on Twitter that she hasnt made “any official announcement,” and asks, “Give my please some time and Ill let u all know.”

Safin said earlier Friday that his younger sister had decided to quit the sport at 25 years old because of chronic back pain.

Safina began an indefinite break from tennis in May after two years of back problems.

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Top-seeded Rafael Nadal powered past Mardy Fish in the second set to beat the American 7-5, 6-1 on Saturday and advance to the final of the Japan Open.

The match was on serve until the 11th game in the opening set, when Nadal broke and then served out to love at Ariake Colosseum.

The first set was marked my several long rallies, but as the match progressed the Spaniard took control and imposed his will with a combination of crisp ground strokes and a strong serve.

Nadal, the defending champion, won 85 percent of his second serve points in the match which lasted 1 hour, 35 minutes. He broke Fish in the first and third games of the second set and held serve throughout. He concluded the match with another break which included a scintillating shot.

Nadal ran down a crosscourt shot from Fish and then whipped a sublime winner down the line that curled just inside to paint to reach match point. The contest ended on the next point on an unforced error by Fish, who hit a smash into the net.

The 10-time Grand Slam champion will face the winner of Saturdays second semifinal between second-seeded Andy Murray of Britain and third seed David Ferrer of Spain.

Nadal and Fish had met seven times prior to Saturdays match with Nadal holding a 6-1 advantage. Fish won their previous meeting in the quarterfinals at Cincinnati earlier this year where he beat Nadal in straight sets.

Murray and Ferrer have split their six career matches.

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