Robredo wins Bastad opener

Tennis Betting Lines

07/13/2010 - Bastad, Sweden (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two-time champion Tommy Robredo highlighted Tuesday's first-round winners at the Swedish Open.

The fifth-seeded Robredo topped Poland's Michal Przysiezny 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 on the red clay at Bastad Tennis Stadium.

The former top-10 player Robredo captured this event in 2006 and 2008.

Day-2 upsets came when Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas cut down sixth-seeded Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-3) and Croatian qualifier Franco Skugor surprised seventh-seeded Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (9-7).

Other opening-round wins came for Swedish qualifier Ervin Eleskovic, Finn Jarkko Nieminen, Kazakhstan's Andrey Golubev, France's Stephane Robert and Italian Andreas Seppi.

This week's top seed in Swedish star and reigning Bastad champion Robin Soderling. The reigning two-time French Open runner-up will meet wild card and fellow Swede Andreas Vinciguerra in the second round on Wednesday after enjoying a first-round bye this week. Vinciguerra reached back-to-back Bastad finals in 1999 and 2000.

Soderling beat Argentine Juan Monaco in last year's finale here.

In addition to Soderling and Robredo, another former Bastad champion in this week's field is 2007 winner David Ferrer of Spain. Ferrer will face Italian Fabio Fognini in a second-rounder on Wednesday.

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Academy Award Betting Odds for Best Picture Offer Great Value

If there is any category that is not an obvious win for any one nominee in this year's Academy Awards, it would be for Best Picture.  Sure the Departed is a 5/7 favorite, but that's hardly anything when we look at Helen Mirren and her "out-of-reach" 1 to 40 odds (which means you would win a whopping $1 for every $40 bet).

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Who is to say independently produced Little Miss Sunshine won't be this year's Crash.  Last year, Crash won for Best Motion Picture, shocking those who bet on gay cowboy flick, Brokeback Mountain, as the favorite to win. 

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