Wozniacki, Zvonareva advance to U.S. Open semis

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09/08/2010 - Flushing Meadows, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Caroline Wozniacki overcame windy conditions and beat Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova in straight sets Wednesday night to reach the semifinals at the U.S. Open.

The No. 1 seed from Denmark won her 13th straight match by virtue of the 6-2, 7-5 score at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Wozniacki, who was last year's runner-up to Kim Clijsters, has captured titles in Montreal and New Haven during her current winning streak.

Earlier in the day, seventh-seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva reached her second straight Grand Slam semifinal by handling 31st-seeded Kaia Kanepi, 6-3, 7-5 on another sun-filled afternoon at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. She'll next tangle with Wozniacki in Friday's semifinals.

Wozniacki, who has yet to drop a set at this fortnight, took advantage of 43 unforced errors from her opponent. The diminutive Cibulkova, a French Open semifinalist last year, clearly had trouble with the wind, as did Wozniacki. Several times, the players had difficulty starting their serves as the ball shifted directions.

"This felt like playing in a hurricane," Wozniacki said.

Cibulkova fell behind 4-1 in the first set and was clearly frustrated. She managed to hold serve in the middle games of the second set, but Wozniacki got her opportunity when she broke serve to move ahead 6-5. Wozniacki then fought off one break point before finally finishing off the match when Cibulkova sent a return long.

Zvonareva broke Kanepi for a 6-5 lead in the second set and converted on her first match point in the next game when Kanepi launched one final backhand wide of the court at Ashe Stadium.

The 26-year-old Zvonareva advanced in 1 hour, 53 minutes, despite only striking 10 winners over two sets. The Russian did, however, pile up seven service breaks, compared to four for her Estonian counterpart, who also misfired for nine double faults.

Kanepi also appeared in the Wimbledon quarterfinals in July.

The feisty Zvonareva, who celebrated a birthday here on Tuesday, will appear in her third career major semifinal. She's now reached the final four in three of her last seven Grand Slam events and is trying to give Russia a third U.S. Open champion in seven years.

"I always believed in myself," Zvonareva said. "I'm just going out there and trying my best in every match. You know, it's been working pretty good for me so far."

Zvonareva, who lost to Serena Williams in July's Wimbledon finale, has won 11 of her last 12 Grand Slam matches. She's split four all-time matches with Wozniacki.

Friday's other final-four bout will pit second-seeded and defending champion Clijsters against third-seeded former titlist Venus Williams. The former world No. 1 Clijsters beat Wozniacki in last year's U.S. Open finale, titled here in 2005, and was the runner-up in 2003. The former top-ranked Williams titled here in 2000 and 2001 and was the runner-up in Flushing in 1997 and 2002.

The newest U.S. Open champ will pocket at least $1.7 million. Wozniacki has already won the U.S. Open Series and can earn an additional $1 million bonus if she wins the championship in Flushing Meadows.

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NCAA Football Betting : USC's reward: Top spot in Top 25

NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.

No. 1 always seems to fit USC.

Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.

Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.

Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.

"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."

Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.

"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."

The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.

"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."

Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.

"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"

USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.

"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."

While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.

As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.

But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.

Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.

The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.

The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.

The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.

No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.

Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.

Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.

Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.

The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.

South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.

The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.

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