With straight-set wins, sixth seed David Ferrer and number seven Tomas Berdych both advanced to the last eight. Murray revealed that he has been carrying a back problem since December but declined to go into details on the symptoms or its treatment. He lost 6-7 (1-7) 6-3 6-2 to Gasquet. Murray did admit to facing a race against time with the French Open starting in Paris.

In the women’s draw, there was a win for Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova advancing with a 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 win over Sorana Cirstea of Romania. She will now face Angelique Kerber in quarterfinal. Kerber beat fellow German Julia Goerges 6-4, 6-1. Li will meet Dominika Cibulkova, who advanced at Azarenka’s expense. Earlier, Li eliminated Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa 7-6 (3), 6-2 Madrid winner Serena Williams, the ninth seed, advanced over Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-3, 6-1, while the Wimbledon champion stopped Sorana Cirstea 6-2, 5-7, 6-2. Williams admitted that well into the countdown for Roland Garros, while she is aiming to win Rome for the first time in a decade.

Serena extended her winning streak to 16 matches after winning titles in Charleston, South Carolina and Madrid. while leading 4-1 in the second set, Serena called for the trainer and had her left ankle re-taped. She then easily won the final two games. Serena said that she wanted to loosen the tape so she called the trainer to re-tape. The tape was too tight to her liking.

Defending champion Maria Sharapova was scheduled to play Ana Ivanovic in the night match, Serena and Venus Williams were both due on court later.

In this one, Nadal was hardly troubled by Djokovic. He broke the Serb’s serve five times in a one-sided affair on clay to win his 42nd straight match at Monte Carlo. This is his 47th title of his career and his first title since last year’s French Open.

After clinching victory in style with an ace that flew past the beleaguered Djokovic, the 25-year-old Nadal thrust his hands in the air. Djokovic had beaten Nadal in an epic Australian Open final this year. Nadal now leads their head-to-head series 17-14. In three consecutive Grand Slam finals, the Serb had beaten Nadal and handed him his only defeats on clay last year.

The swirling winds were not as intense as Saturday; however, the breezy conditions seemed to bother Djokovic more than they did Nadal. The Spaniard found his range very quickly and broke Djokovic in the third game when the Serb’s backhand went wide.

Nadal won his to love to take a 4-2 lead, while Djokovic held his next service game with great difficulty. Djokovic was surprised when a couple of mistimed returns from Nadal landed just in, although he was up 40-15 in the next. That seemed to give Nadal another break point with a sloppy backhand that went wide and it frustrated the Serb. The Serb saved it and then held with a beautifully weighted drop shot.

In the ninth game, Nadal broke him again to take the opening set, with Djokovic yet again planting a backhand wide. In the second set, a double break gave Nadal a 4-0 lead and Djokovic could not find a way back.

Toronto’s Daniel Nestor and partner Max Mirnyi of Belarus lost 6-2, 6-3 to Americans Bob and Mike Bryan in the doubles final.

The Clippers ended their struggles on the court by a lengthy stay at home and they put aside any distractions off it. Starting Monday night, the Clippers will be on the road for much of the rest of the season. After being swept during a three-games-in-three-days road stretch, Los Angeles entered its five-game homestand and having lost 12 of 19 overall following a 19-9 start.

Los Angeles (31-21) finished its perfect homestand by beating Utah 105-96 on Saturday, therefore the franchise’s first five-game win streak since November 2006 certainly helped. Blake Griffin had 24 points, his sixth straight game with at least 20. against the Mavericks (30-23), he will try to continue that streak while helping his team end its struggles.

The Clippers are on the verge of their second four-game road-losing streak. Los Angeles has not won at the American Airlines Center since April 19, 2006 and has dropped 17 of 19 to Dallas.

The Dallas Mavericks, winners of 10 in a row at home in the series. With six wins in its last seven at home, Dallas enters this matchup having split its last six games. On Thursday, the Mavericks bounced back from a 106-85 drubbing in Miami by rallying for a 100-98 victory at Orlando on Friday.

In the third quarter, they trailed by 15 but completed their comeback when Dirk Nowitzki hit a 15-foot jumper with 5.9 seconds left. Nowitzki gave his team only its second win when trailing to start the final period, while he had 28 points to lead five players in double figures.

While attempting to close its gap on Los Angeles in the standings, Dallas will continue that work. The fifth-place Mavericks are 1 1/2 game behind the fourth-place Clippers. They can help themselves in that quest with their first six-game win streak since March 18-31, 1992, a run that began with a 117-86 victory in Dallas.

In the series Jan. 18, Los Angeles earned its most recent victory when the now-injured Chauncey Billups hit a last-second 3-pointer to secure a 91-89 win. Nowitzki lead his team to a 96-92 victory in Dallas on Feb. 13 and he scored 11 of his team-best 22 points over the final six-plus minutes. Griffin added 20 but missed seven of nine free throws and Caron Butler had a season-high 23 for the Clippers.

The betting odds have Dallas Mavericks as favorites to win the Game 3. The Mavericks are 4/11, while the Clippers are 11/5.

The Chicago Blackhawks with 25 points are the top team of the Western Conference followed up by a tight field points wise.

Double-digit underdogs to win the conference, the Minnesota Wild, are surprising almost everyone and are leading their division with 23 points with the Edmonton Oilers following closely at 20. The Vancouver Canucks, defending conference champs, are close on their heels. Many anticipated that the Canucks would suffer a Stanley Cup runner-up hangover and it appears that this might be the case.

Another division leader, the Dallas Stars, can run away with the Pacific division, they have 22 points in the tightest division on the board. The Phoenix Coyotes fall short of the Stars by one point with the San Jose Sharks and the Los Angeles Kings nipping at their heels with 19 .

The Western Conference was home to the best teams last season but the Stanley Cup was brought home by the Boston Bruins even though they were not the best team in the tournament.

Expectations were high for the Kings to dominate the Pacific as a 12-1 shot to win the conference but are a disappointment after a quick start. Now they have some work to do to get back on top of Dallas in 2011/2012.

The demise of the Anaheim Ducks has been swift but not completely unexpected. This team is aging by the day and will need to retool by the middle of the season and give the young up and comers a serious shot at turning things around.

Online sportsbooks love this opportunity, as the heavy action on these series never fails to come in. As if this match-up isn’t enough to get the excitement going, both teams sit at 68-42 headed into Friday’s game. No, that record isn’t the best in baseball, that belongs to Philadelphia (72-39), but Boston and New York are tied for 2nd, and in the same division no less.

On Saturday, the Yankees will send their ace to the mound in C.C. Sabathia. Boston will go with John Lackey. Lackey has been even more disappointing than he was last season in his first go around after his huge contract. He’s 9-8 with a 6.23 ERA – I wonder if that’s worth 80 million? Sabathia has been his dominant self, 16-5 with a 2.55 ERA and the leader for the AL Cy Young.

Boston has owned New York so far this season. In their 9 games against New York this season, the Red Sox are 8-1. They’ve beaten Sabathia 3 times this season, already. The Red Sox have averaged 6 runs in games where C.C. starts and have put up 6 runs or more in all but 2 of those meetings (both wins, 4-0 and 5-4). The Yankees have some work to do.

Luke Donald, in spite of being ranked behind Lee Westwood, made jaws drop when he announced that his recent consistency makes him the best player in the world. He made an extraordinary round of 64 resulting in eight strokes in front of the world No.1. Donald strokes were right on target and he made a big impression with his fine form.

After the first day of the BMW PGA Championship, Westwood carded a one-over-par 72. Graeme McDowell shot 75 and Rory Mcllroy, went one worse, posting a 76.

13 top tens in his last 14 events, shows Donald’s noteworthy consistency. Only one win in that sequence tells that Donald is in some sense lacking just like Johnny Miller, the 1976 Open champion.

Donald can make significant move in the rankings. Manassero will leap into the top 15, if he can win this championship. Early in this week, he had acclaimed some encouragement. On Tuesday night at the European Tour’s awards dinner, Manassero collected his Rookie of the Year award.

Lots of action is seen in Golf betting lines have received a ton of action these last few days. The odds for the golfers at BMW PGA Championship are Luke Donald 36/25, Matteo Manassero 15/2, Ian Poulter 12, Alvaro Quiros 22, Lee Westwood 27.

With LA at 35-1 and New York at 50-1, baseball betting lines have both the Dodgers and Mets as long shots to win the World Series.

Even though they’ve been unable to get things going this season, both of these teams have talented squads. Although the Dodgers have actually had one of the worst pitching staffs in the National League to this point they are known for having a great pitching staff each year. Compared to the Dodgers, only 2 teams in the National League have allowed more runs.

The Mets seem poised to make a run up the standings as they are now healthy. They look like a real contender with their lineup finally complete as they have won 7 of their last 10 games. If the Dodgers are unable to pick things up they should be able to feast off of the Dodgers pitching for much of the series.

On Sunday, the Dodgers will send Clayton Kershaw to the mound. In baseball, Kershaw is without doubt one of the best young pitchers. The Dodgers are still waiting for him to step up and be a true ace for their pitching staff as he has been fairly inconsistent this season though.

As they both need to string some wins together if they hope to get on track, this series will be a big one for both teams. The Dodgers may be able to play catch up if they can string together some wins as the Rockies have not been playing terribly well as of late.

An overall exceptional defensive game was played by the Knicks. With a strained left knee, Chauncey Billups’ expected Game 2 absence will have a massive impact on the game. Replacement Toney Douglas will have to step up. If not, something has to be figured out by the offensive-minded coach Mike D’Antoni.

The Knicks had a horrendous shooting in the second half and they have to shoot better overall. The way to do it is by feeding the hot hand. Amar’e Stoudemire was the person who did most of that on Sunday and not Carmelo Anthony (1-of-11, three points in the second half).

For Boston, Rajon Rondo is quite a force. His pinpoint inbounds pass for a Kevin Garnett was accountable for taking all of half a second in crunch time. At the other end of the court, defense and rebounding fueled the Celtics, as they were able to get in transition and produce effortless baskets with Rondo at the helm.

The question is whether for 48 minutes, Boston can put that sort of endeavor together. In the postseason, coach Doc Rivers is encouraged to see the fourth-quarter defensive supremacy.

As world number one online sportsbooks have Djokovic at 5-1 in tennis odds to end the ATP Tour season. After Djokovic beat Rafael Nadal in the final of the Sony Ericsson Open, the odds were released on Sunday.

To win the French Open in May Djokovic is also at 5-1.

While a fourth title of the season has cut into Nadal’s lead further, the Serbian player passed 16-time Grand Slam winner Roger Federer in the rankings following his Australian Open win.

Even with the fact the ATP Tour season is headed for Nadal’s favoured surface clay, Nadal does get a boost to hand on to top spot. To hold on to top spot the Spaniard is 8/11.

Nadal is bow at 5-1 to win at Roland Garros after opening at 4-9 although with Djokovic closing in on the game’s top player.

While out-of-form Andy Murray is 33/1 to be topping the rankings come the end of the season, Federer was brushed aside by Nadal in the semis in Miami and is 12/1 to reclaim top spot.

On Sunday to win the Sony Ericsson Open Djokovic beat Nadal 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4), his fourth consecutive title of the year and 26th straight match dating from last season.

He said that, that is the best four months of his life and that streak is incredible.

In 2009, Azarenka witnessed her career breakthrough at Key Biscayne. In this edition of 2011 Sony Ericsson Open, she ran out 6-3 6-3 winner against the 2010 champion Clijsters.

The No. 2 seed in the Crandon Park event, Clijsters had reached the quarterfinals by battling back from a 5-1 deficit in the third set Tuesday by holding off former No. 1 Ana Ivanovic. Azarenka proved too much to prevail over for Clijsters, as the latter committed 44 unforced errors. Azarenka displayed some solid play. In nine service games, Clijsters had eight double faults and held her serve just three times. She persists to be troubled by a right shoulder injury.

Azarenka will face third-seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva. The latter won 7-5 6-3 over Poland’s Agienszka Radwanska. Russia’s Maria Sharapova will face off against rising German star Andrea Petrovic in the other semi-final.

After winning the match, Azarenka said that it does not matter if she is on the court, or off the court; she feels cheerful all the time now. She added that Miami definitely is a great place with so much of enthusiasm from people. She said that she is really enjoying her time in Miami and it will continue to be an exceptional place for her.

The sportsbooks are offering some interesting odds for the Sony Ericsson open. The odds for the semifinals are – Andrea Petkovic (5/6) vs. Maria Sharapova (19/16) and Vera Zvonareva (8/11) vs. Victoria Azarenka (11/8).