Blake rallies to finish off Davydenko, advances to Estoril final

Tennis Betting Lines

05/10/2009 - Estoril, Portugal (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - After having their semifinal match suspended Saturday due to darkness, fourth-seeded James Blake and three-time finalist Nikolay Davydenko resumed play on Sunday at the $595,000 clay-court Estoril Open.

The second-seeded Davydenko beat Blake 7-6 (7-3) in the first set and was trailing 4-2 in the second before the match was interrupted at National Stadium. Blake went on to capture the second set 7-6 (7-2) and won the decisive third set 6-3 to become the first American to reach the final here since 1999.

Blake, who is a flawless 7-0 lifetime against the world No. 11 Russian star, will play seventh-seeded Albert Montanes in the final, also to be played on Sunday, after the Spaniard made short work of Chilean Paul Capdeville in Saturday's first semifinal bout.

Davydenko, who titled here in 2003, lost to the great Roger Federer in last year's finale and also came up short in the 2006 final.

The 2009 Estoril champ will collect $96,000.

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.