Azarenka, McHale reach Doha QFs

Tennis Betting Lines

02/16/2012 - Doha, Qatar (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - World No. 1 Belarusian stalwart Victoria Azarenka and rising American teenager Christina McHale were among Thursday's third-round winners at the $2.168 million Qatar Open.

The Australian Open champion Azarenka, playing in her first tournament as the world No. 1 star, leveled capable Romanian Simona Halep 6-3, 6-1 in 1 hour, 20 minutes on the hardcourts at Khalifa International Tennis Complex.

The 22-year-old Azarenka is now a sizzling 14-0 this season, which also includes a title in Sydney last month.

Azarenka's quarterfinal opponent on Friday will be Belgian slugger Yanina Wickmayer, who was a 6-4, 6-0 victor against Russian Ksenia Pervak on Day 4.

Joining Azarenka in the round of eight were third-seeded U.S. Open champion Samantha Stosur and fourth-seeded Pole Agnieszka Radwanska. The Aussie Stosur stifled Czech Petra Cetkovska 6-3, 6-2, while the steady Radwanska rolled past American qualifier Varvara Lepchenko 7-5, 6-1.

In other third-round action, the 19-year-old McHale overcame Israeli Shahar Peer 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 and Romanian Monica Niculescu topped Ukrainian qualifier Kateryna Bondarenko 7-6 (7-5), 6-4. McHale's next assignment will come against Radwanska, while Niculescu will meet Stosur on Friday.

The 2012 Doha champion will earn a first prize of $385,000.

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FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).

Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.

Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).

Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.

Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.

The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.

What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.

Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.

But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.

In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.