Pennetta, hot Rezai, Errani move on in Palermo

Tennis Betting Lines

07/13/2010 - Palermo, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top-seeded Italian favorite Flavia Pennetta, last week's Bastad champion Aravane Rezai and 2009 Palermo runner-up Sara Errani of the host nation posted first-round victories Tuesday at the $220,000 Palermo International tennis tournament.

The reigning Palermo champion Pennetta leveled German Kathrin Woerle 6-3, 6-1, while the second-seeded Rezai won her sixth straight match by outlasting Romania's Simona Halep 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 on the red clay at Country Time Club. The French Rezai is fresh off a clay-court championship in Sweden.

Up next for Pennetta will be Czech Renata Voracova, while Rezai will take on Colombian Mariana Duque Marino.

Pennetta beat Errani in last year's all-Italian finale here and was the Palermo runner-up back in 2004.

A third-seeded Errani, meanwhile, blew past Ukrainian Mariya Koryttseva 6-2, 6-3. Errani has reached the last two finals here, titling in 2008 and losing to Pennetta in last year's title tilt.

Errani's second-round opponent will be Croatian qualifier Mirjana Lucic.

A mild Day-2 upset came when Slovenian Masa Zec Peskiric took out seventh- seeded Spaniard Arantxa Parra Santonja 7-5, 6-3.

Two other seeds avoided upsets, as No. 8 Julia Goerges of Germany grounded Italian qualifier Martina Caregaro 6-3, 6-2 and No. 9 Italian Alberta Brianti topped Dutchwoman Arantxa Rus 7-6 (7-0), 6-2. Brianti became a seed this week when No. 6 Chinese Peng Shuai pulled out of the field, citing an ankle injury.

Other Day-2 wins came for the aforementioned Voracova and Lucic, Italians Corinna Dentoni, a qualifier here, and Romina Oprandi, a wild card, Spanish qualifier Nuria Llagostera Vives, and Romanian Ioana Raluca Olaru. Dentoni leveled fellow Italian Maria Elena Camerin 6-2, 6-3.

Footballfantasybetting Tennis Betting News

<< MLS announces First XI for All-Star Game
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - United States star Landon Donovan highlighted a list of four Los Angeles Galaxy players named to Major League Soccer's All- Star First XI on Tuesday. L.A.'s Edson Buddle, Omar Gonzalez and Donovan Ricketts

<< George Steinbrenner's best chance in Kentucky Derby
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tuesday the sports world lost one of its most recognizable figures when a heart attack claimed the life of George Steinbrenner. The owner of the New York Yankees passed away at the age of 80. While best kn

<< Celtic's Boruc set to join Fiorentina
Glasgow, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Celtic has agreed to sell goalkeeper Artur Boruc to Italian side Fiorentina. The 30-year-old Poland international made more than 150 appearances since arriving from Legia Warsaw in 2005 but

<< Tottenham's Bentley suffers injury setback
London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Midfielder David Bentley will miss Tottenham Hotspur's preseason tour to the United States with ankle ligament damage. Bentley limped out of Saturday's friendly against Bournemouth after land

<< Ilgauskas follows LeBron to Miami
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Center Zydrunas Ilgauskas has apparently decided to join former Cavaliers teammate LeBron James in Miami. The Plain Dealer of Cleveland reported Tuesday afternoon that Ilgauskas will sign with the Hea

Carr to retire from Michigan athletic department >>
Ann Arbor, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former Michigan head football coach and current associate athletic director Lloyd Carr will retire from the school's athletic department in September. Carr will officially retire September 1, endin

Sydor calls its a career >>
St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Defenseman Darryl Sydor announced his retirement Tuesday after 18 seasons in the NHL. Sydor, 38, played in 47 games for the Blues last season, posting eight assists. "I've known Darryl fo

Judge sets Aug 4 auction of Texas Rangers >>
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -A federal bankruptcy judge has decided that the Texas Rangers will be auctioned off after all.U.S. Bankruptcy Judge D. Michael Lynn set the date for Aug. 4.Major League Baseball endorsed its preferred buyer - a group led by t

Bobcats trade Chandler to Mavericks in five-player deal >>
Charlotte, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Charlotte Bobcats traded center Tyson Chandler to the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday in a five-player trade. Along with Chandler, the Mavericks acquired center Alexis Ajinca, while the Bobcats receiv

Spurs re-sign Bonner >>
San Antonio, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Antonio Spurs re-signed center/forward Matt Bonner on Tuesday. Per team policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed. Bonner just finished his sixth season in the NBA and fourth with Sa

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.