John Isner scored a victory over Ruben Bemelmans at Atlantic Station and it advances to the quarterfinals of the BB&T Atlanta Open with a 4-6, 6-3, and 6-4.

Between the second and third sets, the match was delayed for 25 minutes when a circuit breaker overheated in a bank of lights in the northeast corner of the stadium court. Isner will play 19-year-old Jack Sock on Friday, not before 9 p.m. The No. 1 seed and a former standout at Georgia. Sock was the winner over Steve Johnson in a matchup of wild cards.

Isner said he did not feel comfortable early in the first set in which Bemelmans broke his second serve because he was playing his first hard-court match since Miami in March. Isner said that he just told himself not to get too frustrated and to try to let the match run its course.

In each of the next two sets, Isner bounced back, breaking Bemelmans’ first serve to take command. After taking the title in Newport, R.I. last week, Isner is attempting to win his second consecutive tournament. He is one of four U.S. players in the BB&T who will represent the U.S. in the Olympics.

In the finals of the past two tournaments in Atlanta, Isner lost both the games to Mardy Fish. The No. 2 seed and two-time defending champion, Fish was leading Gilles Muller of Luxembourg 6-4, 3-2 when he pulled out.

Isner said that he thinks we are all wishing a speedy recovery for Fish. He was winning that match and most likely was going to win it. That is terrible.

Kei Nishikori will meet Go Soeda on Friday in the first matchup between Japanese players in the quarterfinals of an ATP World Tour tournament in the Open era (since 1968), while in other quarterfinal matches Friday; No. 4 seed Andy Roddick faces Michael Russell. Their match will take place no earlier than 4 p.m.

Nishikori defeated Ricardas Berankis 6-4, 6-7 (7), 6-4. Soeda, the No. 8 seed, defeated Igor Kunitsyn, 6-1, 7-5. Both matches were played Wednesday. Since the Open era began in 1968, the ATP World Tour said Nishikori and Soeda are the first two players from Japan to face each other in an ATP quarterfinal. Both players will represent Japan in the upcoming Olympics.

BB&T Atlanta Open Outrights have odds John Isner 2, Andy Roddick 4, Kei Nishikori 11/2, Go Soeda 20, Gilles Muller 14.

Clint Bowyer raced to his first victory on a road course y holding off Kurt Busch at Sonoma. This was his first triumph with Michael Waltrip Racing as well. On this road course, although Bowyer finished fourth three previous times, his background is on dirt tracks and this style of racing is not his strong suit.

As a result, the irony of winning Sunday was not lost on Bowyer. He said that to have this dirt boy from Kansas at Victory Lane on a road course is big. He added that he saw Jeff Gordon, he is sitting there on the wall, he has won this race many times, he is a champion of this sport and he just beat him. Bowyer further said that he passed Jeff Gordon, and one has no idea, a young racer from Kansas, one does not forget stuff like that.

By leading 70 of the 112 laps, Bowyer dominated Sunday’s race. Defending race winner Busch got a final shot at taking the win away when caution flew with four laps remaining. He was in an unsponsored car, was all over the bumper of Bowyer’s Toyota late. With roughly eight laps to go, only Busch damaged his car, and he worried the whole caution period whether his Chevrolet was wrecked and had no possibility of catching Bowyer through the two-lap overtime sprint to the finish. Busch damaged his car by hitting a tire wall.

At the green flag, Bowyer raced side-by-side with Busch. He then cleared Busch and pulled away for the win. Bowyer had to walk to Victory Lane to celebrate with his new crew after his car ran out of gas. He left Richard Childress Racing at the end of last season to join MWR. Bowyer was led by former Juan Pablo Montoya crew chief Brian Pattie.

Bowyer, who left Richard Childress Racing at the end of last season when a contract extension couldn’t be completed said that he have had good teammates and good stuff before, but never liked this. By leading 71 of the 112 laps, Bowyer dominated the race.

Bowyer said that Kurt raced him clean; Kurt bumped him and roughed him up, but never did anything to jeopardize either one of them. Bowyer had to walk to Victory Lane to celebrate with his new crew after his car ran out of gas.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Outrights has Jimmie Johnson 5/2, Tony Stewart 7/2, Denny Hamlin 9, Matt Kenseth 9, Greg Biffle 10.

Los Angeles Kings and New Jersey Devils meet at Prudential Center, Newark, New Jersey for Game 1 (8:00 PM ET, May 30, 2012) of the seven game series. New Jersey winning both games played in October against the Kings. On Oct. 13, the Devils beat the Kings 2-1 in a shootout at Prudential Center and then won 3-0 at Staples Center on Oct. 25. The betting odds have the Devils (1), while the Kings (10/11) for this game.

Martin Brodeur injured himself in the first period of the game at Prudential Center and was out of the lineup until Nov. 2, while Johan Hedberg, Devils backup goalie got the win in both games. Since beating the Rangers in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference last Friday, the Devils have been off for four days. The Kings have been off for seven days since beat the Coyotes in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals. The Devils and Kings are very alike in their approaches. Both want to launch the forecheck, generate pressure and have it lead to offense.

Los Angeles is making only its second appearance in a Cup final, having lost in 1993 to Montreal. They are heavily courted Kovalchuk in free agency. They have had a good run until now. The Kings hope their road success continues in New Jersey. From the start of the playoffs, they have won an NHL-record eight straight road games. The long layoff is not anything new to this team. The Kings have been practicing at their facility in El Segundo, Calif despite not playing for a while.

While a balanced group of six defensemen, and the incredible play of Jonathan Quick in net, it was a rookie who led them in goals against the Coyotes, the Kings have mostly been led by a strong group of top-six forwards.

With the time off, both the teams have gotten healthier. Devils defenseman Henrik Tallinder is cleared to play. He has not played since Jan. 17 due to a blood clot. He is not expected to play in Game 1. Similarly, Kings forward Simon Gagne is cleared and he could play in this series. He has not played since Dec. 26 due to a concussion. He is not expected to play in Game 1.

Toronto Blue Jays (14-11) clash against Los Angeles Angels (9-15) on Thursday 5/3, 10:05 PM ET at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. From Thursday, starts a 10-game road trip for the Blue Jays, when they open a four-game set with the Angels. With a .292 team on-base percentage, the Angels entered Wednesday as the third worst in the American League behind the Mariners and A’s. The best betting odds have Angels 7/9 while Blue Jays (6/5).

The Angels’ lineup and bullpen have not performed well of late, although their rotation has done well. Angels’ starters, in their last 11 games have entered Wednesday with 10 quality starts and a 2.29 ERA. On Thursday, right-hander Dan Haren is scheduled to start for the Halos, after coming off a one-run, eight-inning effort against the Indians in a 2-1 win on Saturday. Brandon Morrow, another righty also goes for Toronto.

Halos manager Mike Scioscia said that they have a couple of times around the rotation now where they were getting the pitching that they feel they expected. He added that they have not been able to match it with the offensive support to take advantage of it, but that pitching is really the hallmark of their club, and they need to keep getting those good starts after good starts.

Haren’s ERA is 1.64 in his last three starts, which is a 22-inning span. With six shutout innings against Seattle with a season-high nine strikeouts and no walks, Morrow is coming off his most impressive start of the season. In the 7-0 win, he improved to 2-1 and lowered his ERA to 3.03 in the process.

Blue Jays manager John Farrell said that he has this capability every time he steps to the mound. He added that when one combines a well-above-average fastball with the command that he showed today in addition to three other offspeed pitches, he has the ability to not only take over the game, but also dominate the opposition.

Righty Joel Carreno has been recalled and left-hander Evan Crawford has been optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas. While striking out two in Wednesday’s 11-5 win over Texas, Carreno threw a scoreless ninth.

Farrell said that they wanted to get another right-handed reliever here. With today and a predominantly right-handed-hitting team in Texas and the Angels are going to be the same type of lineup, where there is primarily right-handed hitters throughout. That is where they felt another right-handed pitcher was needed. He added that Evan was the person who was the optionable reliever and it had nothing to do with performance or anything like that.

Chelsea’s poor conversion rate of one Champions League final from five previous last-four appearances is likely to continue, if they flirt with danger against Barcelona as they did at home to Benfica on Wednesday.

In the last nine seasons, Chelsea went through to their sixth semi after winning 2-1 in the second leg and 3-1 on aggregate but they were close to losing the tie on away goals in the closing stages. They looked second best for long periods.

Instead, the Londoners made it safe in stoppage time through a thunderbolt from Portuguese Raul Meireles, heckled in the first leg at Benfica last week for his previous Porto connections.

After 21 minutes, Chelsea took the lead with a Frank Lampard penalty and they had the chance to take a firm grip on the game when Benfica skipper Maxi Pereira was shown a second yellow card. Pereira got the card for a rash challenge on John Obi Mikel five minutes before halftime.

Cech blocked a left-footed curling attempt from Cardozo at the start of the second half, while Pablo Aimar found the space to strike into the side netting. Salomon Kalou’s shot lacked the power to find its way into the net and Ramires failed to push the ball into the open net, although he should have doubled Chelsea`s lead.

Chelsea looked like they might be made to pay for their recklessness. Yannick Djalo headed over and then seeing another challenge turned wide before Garcia`s header finally breached Cech`s goal. Benfica would have been heading into the last four but Chelsea clung on with Meireles` strike easing the late nerves, had Nelson Oliveira found the target soon.

Cech had already defied gravity to claw away a goal-bound header from substitute Yannick Djalo. Leaving the Spaniard unchallenged to glance home a header, although David Luiz lost Garcia at the resultant corner. Unexpectedly Chelsea was just one goal away from blowing it and stealing defeat from the jaws of victory. Substitute Meireles nicked the ball off the head of Witsel and raced half the length of the pitch before unleashing an unstoppable shot beyond keeper Artur, although with Benfica throwing everyone forward for one last hurrah.

Chelsea will now play against the mighty Barcelona side. The UEFA Champions League betting odds as per various sportsbook have Chelsea (19/5), while Barcelona (4/5).

Vancouver Canucks will meet up Dallas Stars in the third of the four game series. Dallas leads the series with two wins. They would like to seal the series. This match will be held at American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas (8:30 PM ET, March 22, 2012). On March 30, these two teams meet again in Vancouver. On Feb. 26, the Stars have won a 3-2 overtime win in the Canucks’ first visit to the American Airlines Center.

The Canucks are stumbling toward the finish line and they have all but clinched the Northwest Division. In a four-way scramble for the top spot in the Pacific Division, the Stars have no such assurances for them, to try to hold on to first place. The scramble could see the three non-winners all miss the playoffs.

Canucks continues to struggle to put the puck in the net. In Wednesday’s game in Chicago, Jannik Hansen scored in 27 seconds, but, despite a 35-save performance by Roberto Luongo, the Canucks could not score again and wound up losing 2-1 in overtime. Daniel Sedin’s injury was the biggest loss, after he took a high elbow from Duncan Keith. It does not appear he will be in the lineup against Dallas, although he will be re-evaluated today.

After the match, Coach Alain Vigneault said that the battle and the level of competition was very strong. He added that the tam did lose a little bit of composure after the hit in the second. He was happy with the way the team played in the third but was disappointed for not able to finish some quality chances.

Vancouver goaltender Cory Schneider seems to be in good form. All eyes will be set on him. He has allowed just eight goals in his last five games. Dallas’ Loui Eriksson, in his last three games has scored three goals and six points.
Dallas defenseman Marc Fistric will not play because of a strained abdominal muscle. Vancouver may not play and forward Andrew Ebbett might be out. Defenseman Keith Ballard is also out with a concussion.
NFL betting lines have received a ton of action these last few weeks. The Vancouver Canucks are 4/5 and Dallas Stars 20/19.

Rafael Nadal could face a double blow from Novak Djokovic, as the latter is poised to break the Spaniard’s bid to equal Bjorn Borg’s record of six French Open Tennis titles and at the same time overwhelming him as world number one.

Djokovic is a two-time semifinalist in Paris and he turns 24 on Sunday, which is incidentally the first day of Roland Garros. Nadal has only ever lost once since his 2005 debut.

In 2011, the world number two Serb has been on a super-charged record-breaking run. He is just five shy of John McEnroe’s record unbeaten season start of 42, set in 1984 and he has won all of the 37 matches he has played.

Djokovic has also won seven titles. He has claimed the Australian Open, Masters Events in Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid and Rome. On all four occasions, Nadal was his annihilated challenger. Crucially, in straights sets, Madrid and Rome were on clay and the wins achieved.

Nadal will be in the unusual position of arriving at Roland Garros with the spotlight on someone else, in spite of having won five French Open titles in six years. However, he maintains that Djokovic’s astounding form cannot go on forever.

In 201 matches on the surface, the last Sunday’s defeat in the Italian capital was only Nadal’s eighth loss on clay.

Djokovic appeared to have Nadal on the end of a piece of string in the match in Rome, pulling him one way and another to his heart’s content. The former world number one and seven-time grand slam champion, John McEnroe thinks Nadal must go back to the drawing board in search of a new strategy.

The sports betting picks for few players at the French Open are Rafael Nadal – 11/10, Novak Djokovic – 179/100, Roger Federer – 19, Andy Murray – 21, David Ferrer – 39.

On Friday in the NBA Playoffs, the Memphis Grizzlies will battle against the San Antonio Spurs and ESPN will broadcast the match at 9 pm ET.

To this point this series has been the most exciting series of the NBA Playoffs as these teams will be playing Game 6 of a best-of-seven series. In the series the Grizzlies are currently up 3-2 as well as have a chance to close it out at home.

The over/under total at 189.5 as basketball picks have the Grizzlies as a 3-point, -150 moneyline favorite.

In their last game it looked like the Grizzlies would close out the series. The Grizzlies led by 3 points as there were just a few seconds left. Even though the Grizzlies hit 2 free throws to reestablish their 3 point lead, Manu Ginobli hit a clutch shot to narrow the lead to 1 point. As Gary Neal got the ball with less than 2 seconds remaining, then the Spurs responded. Connecting to set the game to overtime he launched up a 3 point shot.

The Spurs collected themselves during the overtime period and ended up winning by 7 points in the extra period.

The Spurs should have a lot of confidence and momentum going into game 6 with that amazing comeback. They will still be playing on the road and they’ll need to win 2 games in a row while this is the case. Even for a team like the Spurs this will be a difficult comeback. For a team to come back from a 3 games to 1 deficit is very rare.

The game is scheduled to start at 9 pm Eastern time and will take place on Friday night.

On April 30, the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup series travels to Richmond International Raceway. The track is three quarter mile and this is hybrid between an intermediate track and a fast short track. The drivers that can master the proper arc into turn one and turn three will be up front in this race as the track is one of the most difficult to drive.

At online sportsbooks closer to race time, check out NASCAR Betting.

By taking both races on the lightning fast track, Joe Gibbs Racing drivers swept the last two years. Denny Hamlin won the race in the fall at Richmond whereas Kyle Busch won the spring race. Both drivers have learned the intricate setups that are required to keep up with changing track conditions as they have a good handle on this track.

Jimmie Johnson won three of four races before Kyle Busch and Hamlin began their dominance on Richmond. Johnson will be hungry to resume his dominance as he is still a driver everyone will have to contend with.

Even though Kevin Harvick is primed for a return, he is yet another driver that has been shut out of the Richmond Victory Lane. Richmond is one of Harvick’s favorite tracks as he has jumped out to his best start of his career.

On Richmond International Raceway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is another driver that is hungry for a win. He was taken out by Busch as Clint Bowyer cruised by for the win as in May of 2008 he was leading Kyle Busch. Dale Jr. has been up front for several other finishes as he has three wins at Richmond.

In the fourth round of the Sony Ericsson Open, a rising 23-year-old German, Andrea Petkovic completely outplayed Caroline Wozniacki by 7-5, 3-6, 6-3. In the humid heat of south Florida, the match went 2 hours, 24 minutes. The German displayed an attentive but dynamic game against Wozniacki.

Disrespecting Wozniacki’s serve, Petkovic never discontinued slashing her groundstrokes by her incisive backhand and dangerous forehand shots. Petkovic broke Wozniacki five times, in spite of the fact that she had committed 45 unforced errors. The Dane had a relatively shocking 41 unforced errors. Against Wozniacki, Petkovic said her approach was to mix things that made her defeat her competitor.

At the Sony Ericsson Open, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer got big cheers for their custom victories. Federer defeated Russian Mikhail Youzhny 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 and he will now play against longtime buddy Olivier Rochus. In the third-round contest, Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia beat German Philipp Petzschner. Spanish 11th seed Nicolas Almagro was brought to a standstill by Germany’s Florian Mayer with 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 win.

Working her way back from shoulder surgery, Maria Sharapova dictated Samantha Stosur 6-4, 6-1. Against the Australian, she progressed her record to 7-0. Sharapova said the time away from the sport has given her more gratitude for the same. At this year’s Indian Wells, Sharapova produced her best result by playing in her first semi-final since last August.

Pole Agnieszka Radwanska won the first eight games in a 6-0, 6-2. She knocked out Roland Garros winner Francesca Schiavone. Serb sixth seed Jelena Jankovic beat Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-1, 6-3.

Tennis betting lines have received a ton of action these last few weeks. Odds for some of the upcoming matches are – Roger Federer (1/33) will face Olivier Rochus (18) in the next round. Novak Djokovic (1/16) will battle out against Viktor Troicki (12), while Juan Martin del Potro (1/4) will be playing against Mardy Fish (19/5). Maria Sharapova (1/5) will lock horns with Alexandra Dulgheru (4); Kim Clijsters (5/18) will bout against Ana Ivanovic (31/10), while Jelena Jankovic (4/7) will contest against Andrea Petkovic (13/8).