What? No Maria Sharapova at the US Open?

How much chalk are you willing to eat? The men’s draw at the U.S. Open is daring you to reach into those deep pockets and place a bet on the most dominant player in tennis right now: Rafael Nadal.

Nadal has lost exactly one match since May 11, falling to No. 3-ranked Novak Djokovic on the hard courts of Cincinnati. He’ll face an easier opponent on Saturday morning (11:00 a.m. Eastern) when No. 6-ranked Andy Murray meets Nadal in the semifinals. Nadal is a perfect 5-0 lifetime versus Murray, beating him on all surfaces since their first encounter at the 2007 Australian Open.

At press time, Nadal was priced at –500 to win his semifinal match. Murray was +330. Tennis being the individual sport that it is, there isn’t the same kind of “any given Sunday” hope for underdogs as there is in team sports like football. Nadal is the value pick here, chalk and all.

Seattle is 2-1 SU and 3-0 ATS this preseason, riding Frye’s arm through most of it while protecting Matt Hasselbeck (back) and Seneca Wallace (groin). Rookie Dalton Bell out of West Texas A&M could end up getting his first taste of NFL action on Friday.

The Raiders (1-2 SU, 1-1 ATS) are 3-point road dogs in this matchup. They’ve had some injury problems of their own this summer, and coach Lane Kiffin is responding by keeping his starters on the bench for the entire game. We’ll be treated instead to an interesting battle for the No. 3 wide receiver spot now that Drew Carter (knee) is out of the season.

Philadelphia Eagles’ RB Brian Westbrook

Running back is second only to quarterback in the hierarchy of football importance – and popularity. But a running back is highly dependent on his teammates; without a competent system surrounding him, the RB can’t put up the big numbers people equate with success: rushing yards gained.

In other words, those numbers are a bad way to evaluate talent. So let’s use the Defense-adjusted Yards Above Replacement (DYAR) numbers at Football Outsiders to determine who the Top 10 tailbacks were in 2007. We’ll also factor in receiving, another important part of the job position that the public overlooks:

1. Brian Westbrook, Philadelphia    523 DYAR
2. LaDainian Tomlinson, San Diego    400
3. Joseph Addai, Indianapolis        372
4. Adrian Peterson, Minnesota        325
5. Ronnie Brown, Miami            316
6. Frank Gore, San Francisco        240
7. Marion Barber, Dallas        237
8. Jamal Lewis, Cleveland        224
9. Maurice Jones-Drew, Jacksonville    223
10. Kevin Faulk, New England        209

If only they could have mustered that kind of excitement for preseason football north of the border. Five thousand Canadians showed up at the Rogers Center dressed up as empty seats for Thursday’s Pittsburgh Steelers-Buffalo Bills matchup. Overpriced tickets kept away many fans who might otherwise attend one of the upcoming regular-season games in Toronto.

Failing to sell out may have been a mild embarrassment for the league, but at least the game included the highlight of the preseason thus far: a 95-yard kick return for a touchdown by Bills first-round pick Leodis McKelvin. That’s the kind of play the Canadian fan base can appreciate.

Curlin may make an appearance at the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, if his owners don’t decide to put him in the Breeders’ Cup Classic against Big Brown. Curlin is getting 16/1 to win, but I’d rather wait until we see the results of the prep race he runs after arriving in Europe later this summer.

New Approach is a good pick at 7/1, and some books have him at 6/1. Also Soldier of Fortune and Duke of Marmalade could pull off the win. Both are at 9/2 at this point in the betting.

The twilight of American boxing was the 1988 Games in Seoul, where Team USA won three gold medals (it should have been four – Roy Jones Jr. was shafted). They’ve won a total of three since then. Cuba has 20. However, their boxing team has been decimated by a series of defections. None of the five winners from Athens will be at Beijing this year.

That leaves the powerful Russian team. They won three gold medals at Athens and picked up another three at last year’s World Boxing Championships. No Ivan Drago jokes, please.

The big one is nearly upon us. UFC 87: Seek and Destroy is coming up on Aug. 9, and the main event is going to be a barnburner: Georges St. Pierre vs. Jon Fitch for St. Pierre’s Welterweight title.

At press time, St. Pierre was the solid favorite to defend his championship at –295. Fitch was pegged at +235, even though the two fighters have only two MMA losses apiece. The difference is in the quality of those losses. St. Pierre fell to Matt Hughes and Matt Serra, but got his revenge by beating both men for the title. Fitch dropped a pair of matches back in 2002 at the start of his MMA career.

There’s also a difference in the quality of their victories. Fitch is 8-0 in UFC action, tying Royce Gracie’s record for most consecutive UFC wins, but his top opponents were Thiago Alves and Diego Sanchez. St. Pierre has beaten pretty much every welterweight of note.

At press time, Greg Norman sits atop the leaderboard at Birkdale.

I’m a Phil Mickelson fan, but when I saw his British Open odds improve to 12-1 just before things got underway at Royal Birkdale, I was perplexed. This just isn’t his kind of event – and we saw proof of that in Thursday’s opening round when Lefty shot a 79 to sit 10 strokes off the pace. His new odds? 80-1. Worse, former second favorite Ernie Els finished with an 80 and is now 100-1.

Timing is everything. The weather in the morning was brutal, but then the rain tapered off, making life much easier for those who teed off later in the day. That group includes Sergio Garcia, who holds steady as the 8-1 favorite after shooting a 72.

The leaders at a 1-under 69 are Rocco Mediate (20-1), Robert Allenby (14-1) and Graeme McDowell (10-1). Adam Scott is the new second favorite behind Garcia at 9-1 after firing a 70, matching fellow Aussie Greg Norman (66-1).

The British Open doesn’t go until next week at Royal Birkdale, but Phil Mickelson is already in trouble. Lefty shot an even-par 71 in the first round of the warm-up tournament in Scotland, seven strokes behind the leaders. Lefty has slipped to 14-1 at press time to win the Open; Ernie Els is also 14-1 after going 1-over on Thursday.

With the top two names in the Open field struggling, Sergio Garcia becomes the favorite at 8-1. He’s already had a successful warm-up, finishing second at the European Open last week. Garcia also finished second at the 2007 British Open when he lost a playoff to Padraig Harrington.

Harrington is 16-1; he finished tied for 17th at the European Open after hitting a 75 in the final round. The biggest name on the leaderboard after one round at Loch Lomond is Angel Cabrera, at 6-under. The 2007 U.S. Open winner is 40-1 to win at Royal Birkdale.

The Wimbledon win is Nadal’s first, and with the victory Nadal becomes the first player since Bjorn Borg (1980) to win both the French Open and Wimbledon back-to-back.

Over on the women’s side it was big sister Venus Williams who triumphed over Serena 7-5, 6-4 to win her fifth Wimbledon title. When asked how she felt losing to her older sister, here’s what Serena had to say: “Well, it says a lot about her, I mean, she’s won five Wimbledons now. She’s beaten me on grass now, so that definitely says a lot.”