OS Beijing 2008 Paralympics Olympics Pekin

His bet was to get to the finals, or at least to face Nadal for a revenge game, here in Beijing, to overcome his loss in the Wimbledon tournament. Every Tennis fan was betting on a final game, joining the 2 best players in the world.

Unfortunately, these odds seemed too hard to reach, after a night full of stress, anger and rainfall, where Federer, the world’s number 1 was eliminated by the American James Blake

The US player, who came crushing all Federer’s hopes of a medal in the tennis singles game, also defied every part of the expectations in the sports betting sites and windows. If the leader of the rank wants to stand on a podium in Beijing, his determination will have to be much stronger in the doubles games.

6-4  7-6(2) were the final score in a game that was played 3 and a half hours late, and ending in the early hours of the morning, not to mention that the precipitation of water was doing  a damage after another and letting Federer to drown.

Russia has beaten Lithuania in last year’s Euro-basket, will history repeat itself? Or will unbeaten Lithuanians continue their path towards Beijing’s gold?

Lithuania was leading the game in score all along the 3 quarters of the game, but the 4^th quarter set the game on fire after Russia’s comeback to score, and leading the game for instance. Unfortunately, Kirilenko’s missed free shots would’ve made a huge impact on the score 86-79, despite his 17 points.

This is Russia’s 2^nd loss in 3 games, and will be facing Australia in the next game, both of them a 1-2 record.

On the Lithuanian side, Rimantas Kaukenas who’s coming back from a knee injury contributed with 20 points, as his colleague Ramunas Siskauskas scored 16 points and 7 rebounds; both leading their team to revenge against the Russians who banged them out in the euro-basket semi-finals.

Knowing that they were semi finalists in Athens 2004, and taking a gasp into their achievements until now in the Beijing Olympics, I believe that the Baltic team is starting to look like a good bet to stand on podium and earn a medal.

After all, they have just beaten Europe’s champions!!!

After a bad start in Beijing, Argentina was determined to get back on track, and try to find a way out of the misery, in order to stay in Beijing. Winning is a must after their defeat next to Lithuania, and they managed to do it, after crashing Australia’s dreamers, and now beating Croatia, undefeated and considered a favorite medalist in the Beijing Olympic games.

Tango boys with white, striped with blue and yellow basketball jerseys kept lifting the score’s differentiation, reaching the 30 points, and then settled on 24, to win the game77 to 53, after a great effort from the Argentinean star Luis Scola, ending it with 12 points. Latin America’s boys averaged 59% from inside the arc, and 41% from the 3 points lane.

As for Croatia, the stats make it clear, what was behind their defeat, as the calculations showed a middling of 20% from long range and nearly reaching 30% overall.

Argentina meets the Asian champion in the next game, Iran which is desperate for a 1^st win in Beijing.

Sports betting sites plainly count in favor of the South Americans, but a blow is always possible.

Champion Australia is on the road to the finals, as declared Australian coach after the game against Korea. As for ausie girls’ captain, she was enthusiastic about moving to the quarter finals, giving credit to her team mates who gave everything in the game. She couldn’t avoid coming around evaluating her performance of only 16 points, saying that she’s not up to her usual level yet.

Penny Taylor and Suzy Batkovic contributed in increasing the score difference against Korea, with 18 points each.

Jut like Anne Donovan (USA coach), Australian trainer made a statement confirming that expectations of playing the USA in the finals, is too soon to think about.

Australians and Americans are both aware that they are the favorites in Beijing, and each coach is betting on the performance and experience of her team.

What are the odds that a 3^rd team joins the rivalry?

Argentina completed the 1^st round by collecting every possible point, 9 dots from 3 games. The tango boys managed to get to the quarter finals along with the Ivory Coast. Lionel Messi, whose country was so thankful for Barcelona that allowed him to play the Olympics is delighting the crowds with his skills, led the Tango boys on Wednesday to set a new Olympic record of 9 successive victories, from which 6 were achieved in Athens 2004 and 3 here in Beijing, China.

Brazil also moved up to the 8 round, with a perfect defensive lineup that kept its goal clean. The 2 South American teams blew away any Asian hope of qualifying, after knocking out China and Japan. Samba will meet the lions of Africa, the Cameroon and Argentina plays in opposition to Holland.

European bands such as Italy, Netherland and Belgium qualified with no surprises. Squadra Azura are proving the fact that the world championship wasn’t earned by chance, and willing to confirm it against Belgium in the quarter finals.

Orange Holland is still sticking to the team work and specific passing techniques, which we enjoyed in the European championship games.

Africa is absolutely proud with 3 nations qualifying to the 2^nd round. Ivory Coast and Nigeria will be facing each others, with 1 to go back home, and 1 to qualify to the semi-finals.

From the other side, Cameroon facing the Brazilian Samba will have to give all they have to stop coach Dunga and friends, and qualify to the semis.

Sport betting sites and bet panels are getting crowded more and more as the competition turns so fierce among the best teams of the world. Ronaldinho wants to show what he’s really made of, while Messi doesn’t want to fail his home country! For bet fans, I recommend revising it real well before outlaying any penny on a team. They are all capable.

Personally, I would “put money on” that football tickets are sold out already for each and every one of these games, and that crowds and atmosphere in the stadiums, will be the best part of the game.

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11 games, in 7 days? I find this so silly! That was the expression that Federer alleged after adding a new win to his “highway” in Beijing, in doubles along with Stanislas Wawrinka the team mate, who also had something to say about the games schedule.

This game kept going on till 11 PM.

Nadal and Tommy Robredo lost against their game to the Australian double team Lleyton Hewitt and Chris Guccione 6-2 7-6(5)

Davenport and Huber won in a close game in opposition to Belarus’ team, represented by Victoria Azarenka and Tatiana Poutchek 6-4 4-6 6-3

After falling behind 5-1 in the 1^st set, Serena was clearly furious of her performance. She slammed the game’s racket live on TV, as the packed stadium’ spectators were stunned by the way Williams was letting out her frustration. After lashing out her “Engoisse”  caused by the sluggish start against the French youngster Alize Cornet,  the US player erupted, and that was a turning point for the seeded  4^th in world’s ranking, devastating her opponent 3-6 6-3  6-4.

Serena admitted that she was making too many errors, and that she was working on her temper during the game, but she couldn’t take it anymore. Fortunately, she came back to win, hoping to reach the finals in Beijing.

Sports betting sites and bet panels show a significant number of votes for Serena, not to mention her sister Venus. Will it be a family final in Beijing?

After loosing against Berdych in the 2^nd round of Athens 2004, Federer joined all of his powers, setting 1 plan ahead of him, which is to beat Berdych in a revenge game here in Beijing.

In what he considered a real test, Federer seemed really excited to win every point, sending Yesss and punching the air, or making gestures with his fist. The world ranking leader, is willing to face Nadal in the finals, in what would be a vengeance game, knowing that world number 1 failed to beat Nadal, and came 2nd in Wimbledon.

6-3  7-6(4) was the score of the game, allowing Federer to reach the quarters. Still a long way to go, but the world champion is definitely single-minded about winning the game.