Berdych and Youzhny to play for Munich title

Tennis Betting Lines

05/09/2009 - Munich, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic and Russia's Mikhail Youzhny won semifinal matches Saturday and will play for the title on Sunday at the BMW Open.

The fourth-seeded Berdych earned a 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 victory over France's Jeremy Chardy, while Youzhny rallied for a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 triumph over German wild card Daniel Brands.

Berdych will play in a final for the first time this year and will try to improve upon his career mark of 4-4 in ATP title matches. He was 1-1 last year, losing in Bastad and winning in Tokyo in October.

This year had been a struggle for Berdych, as he had not been past the fourth round in any tournament before this week.

On Saturday, Berdych had his serve broken just once and fired 10 aces. He will try to become the first Czech player to win in Munich since Jiri Novak in 2001.

Youzhny will play in his second Munich final, having lost to Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber in the 2007 title match. Like Berdych, Youzhny is also 4-4 in ATP finals. The last of his four titles came in January 2008 in Chennai.

Brands had Youzhny on the ropes Saturday, but could not convert any of the four break point chances he had in the eighth game of the third set. Youzhny managed to hold serve for 4-4, then broke Brands' serve in the next game before holding his own to close it out.

Youzhny owns a 5-3 career record against Berdych, including a semifinal win at this event in 2007. The two will meet for the third time in 2009, having split the first two. Youzhny won a first-round match in Marseille back in February and Berdych returned the favor a month later in the second round of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. Both went three sets.

Sunday's winner will collect a first prize of $95,000.

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Big East Conference odds

Work left to do: Villanova, Syracuse, DePaul, West Virginia, Providence

Notre Dame and Louisville appear to have done enough to make the move, so we'll make them locks. The Cardinals, despite a modest RPI, are trending way up and have clinched at least a tie for third in the Big East, which should be more than enough with their pair of big road wins. Villanova got back to .500 and gets back to more solid footing. Syracuse got a very important road win and crippled a fellow contender in the process. West Virginia's fate could be in its hands Tuesday at Pitt.

Work left to do:

Villanova [18-9 (7-7), RPI: 21, SOS: 5] Pounded Rutgers to get back to .500. If Cats can get their last two (at UConn, vs. Syracuse), that should be enough with strong computer numbers and a host of wins away from The Pavilion. The Cats have beaten Texas and swept the Big 5 (never easy in Philly), but have a couple of losses to bubble teams (Xavier, Drexel), too. I still think they'll be OK, possibly even at 8-8.

Syracuse [20-8 (9-5), RPI: 53, SOS: 62] History says 10 wins will be plenty, but it might be hard for the Orange to get that last one with a final two vs. G'town, which is trying to win the league title, and at Villanova, which will be desperate for a W. The relative lack of nonconference heft and the weak computer numbers are still concerns, but the Orange have won four in a row and got a very, very big win at Providence on Saturday.

DePaul [16-12 (8-7), RPI: 54, SOS: 18] Beat Cincy and should get past South Florida to get to 9-7, but then what? They have beaten Kansas and Cal (right after the DeVon Hardin injury) earlier this season, but also have lost to Bradley and Purdue, among others. They'll likely need a couple of BE tourney wins, too, but we'll see ...

West Virginia [19-7 (8-6), RPI: 58, SOS: 125] The game at Pitt on Tuesday night could decide the Mountaineers' fate (barring a deep tournament run). They can still get to 9-7 in the Big East without it by beating Cincinnati, but the nine wins would be against UConn, Villanova, St. John's, South Florida, DePaul, Rutgers, Seton Hall twice and the Bearcats. Beating bubble foes is fine, but where's the beef? Outside of beating PG-less UCLA in nonconference play (still a top quality win), there's not a lot to fall back on (besides maybe NC State). WVU vs. Syracuse would be an interesting debate, as the teams don't play in the Big East regular season. WVU has the best win, but Cuse has played the much better schedule.

Providence [17-10 (7-7), RPI: 70, SOS: 33] The Friars likely saw their at-large hopes die at home in the four-point loss to Syracuse, barring an unexpected run to the Big East semis or more. The RPI, bad already, won't be helped by playing St. John's and South Florida in the final two league games.

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