Online Betting Contest

Seimone Augustus (Minnesota Lynx), Sue Bird (Seattle Storm), Rebekkah Brunson (Sacramento Monarchs), Swin Cash (Detroit Shock), Kara Lawson (Sacramento Monarchs), DeLisha Milton-Jones (Washington Mystics), Courtney Paris (University of Oklahoma), Candace Parker (University of Tennessee), Cappie Pondexter (Phoenix Mercury), Katie Smith (Detroit Shock), Diana Taurasi (Phoenix Mercury) and Tina Thompson (Houston Comets) are the 12 talented women athletes which form USA women National Team. This team compete in the FIBA Americas Championship, slated for Sept. 26-30 in Valdivia, Chile.

What they are fighting for?

Only the gold medalist in the eight-team tournament will advance to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, so they are looking for GOLD.

It seems that nothing can stop this team to win the first place in Chile.

After a poor and disappointing start of the season, Mandalskamerat seems to have improved a lot, judging by their recent results. Although they still hold the last position in the Norwegian second league table, with 13 points and a negative goal range (30 goals scored and 68 goals received), we have strong reasons to believe that Mandalskamerat is in a surprising uptrend. They recorded a 4-1 away win, at Raufoss, 2 rounds ago and a 3-0 win over Lov Ham at home, last round. Their fantastic away win over Raufoss should give them the confidence they seem to have lacked this season.

On the other side, Sogndal is in an obvious downtrend lately. They haven’t won a single match in their last 9 meetings (3 draws and 6 defeats). Mandalskamerat should and has the ability to overcome their opponent. Tradition is also on their side, as they lost only one of their previous 4 encounters against Sogndal, having won one match and drawn twice. Mandalskamerat will get at least one point from this clash.

In the Davis Cup qualifiers, Japan leads Romania 2-1 after 3 games. So this following match between Takao SUZUKI (JPN), ranked 216th in the ATP classification, and Andrei Pavel (ROM), ranked 88th, is going to be a decisive match for both players. It will be their first clash as the two players have never met before.

Despite being a favourite in this match, judging by the odds he is given for winning this clash, Romanian Andrei Pavel, aged 33, might get overwhelmed by the enormous pressure of this “must-win” game for him. We should also take into consideration the fact that his win over Go SOEDA (JPN) was not an easy one (6-3, 6-7, 7-5, 6-3).

The match will be played on Namihaya Dome Main Arena, in Osaka, Japan, so the public will definitely be on Suzuki’s side. Suzuki is considered to be Japan’s most important and valuable tennis player and he seems to be in good form after beating Romania’s best ranked tennis player, Victor Hanescu, in 3 sets (7-6, 6-1, 7-6).

Having all that in mind, I think I wouldn’t be too wrong if I credited Suzuki to win this decisive match.

Suzuki might prove to be a tough nut to crack for Romanian player Andrei Pavel.

Last week Lindsay Davenport beat Jelena Jankovic (6-4 2-6 6-2) in Bali - Indonesia Open and won the final. Is L. Davenport strong enough at 31 years old to defeat J. Jankovic (22 years old) again ? I thing NO. Jankovic is a clever girl which learn from mistakes and I thing she will be more focused than last week and she will won 2 sets. If the match will be continued in the 3rd set I suppose that L.Davenport will not run enough and will lost it. It is true that L. Davenport has a lot of confidence right now and has good services but we don’t have to forget that Jankovic is still #3 WTA ranking and that tells us a lot. Davenport won a title after the pregnancy. Many applause for her but we have to be realistic for this match. Let’s see the match … and win the best one!