We have narrowed the field down to eight and it is quite an interesting eight players as well. Let’s look at the Wimbledon quarterfinal and their respective betting odds.

Djokovic vs Lu. I thought Djokovic would go out early, thinking about his flimsy form earlier this season, but he has actually played some good tennis and it was impressive to see him dispatch Hewitt quite easily. Is he now a genuine threat for the title? Not in my view, because in the semi-finals, if all goes as planned, a certain Roger Federer waits.

But question is right now if the only real surprise in the field, Lu from Taipei, who played a very inspired match when he beat Andy Roddick in five sets, can keep his game on that high level and make Djokovic work for it. The thing with these huge upset guys is that they usually have one big match in them, not two. That is why I pick Djokovic in four sets. Although I would “luve” to see Lu win. Odds at Sportsinteraction: Djokovic 1.13 and Lu 5.05.

Nationals phenom Stephen Strasburg shut out the Braves for six innings before letting in three unearned runs in the seventh to be handed drop his record to 2-2 over his first five big league starts.  Meanwhile Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, who’ll manage the National League in the All-Star Game, said he has “a very open mind about” selecting Strasburg to play in the midsummer classic.  Might Manuel want to give the young phenom on a division rival a chance to fail on a big stage?

Before Monday night’s start, Bobby Cox called Strasburg “a Hall of Famer in the making,” . Cox had more praise for what he’d seen in the young star’s first four starts:

He can only get worse. It’s amazing. Unhittable. He’s got nowhere to go. He’s already at utopia. It’s not supposed to work that way in this game. In his case, it has.

MMA Quick Jabs to start the week…

Fedormania:

• Fabricio Werdum wants to fight Fedor in Russia? [MMA Mania]
• Video of the Fedor vs. Werdum fight. [The Cage Doctors]
• Werdum’s victory was throwback to MMA roots [MMA Fighting]
• Alistair Overeem wants Werdum next [Five Knuckles]

More MMA Quick Jabs:

• Now you can have Arianny Celeste all over you, for a small price. Hate to spoil the fun but it’s a T-shirt. [Chicago’s MMA]
• Joe “Daddy” Stevenson is out against Takanori Gomi and Tyson Griffin is in. [MMA News]
• BJ Penn trains hard. How hard? So hard he lost a part of his ear. [Middle Easy]
• Say goodbye to 4 TUF fighters, including Jamie Yager [Cage Potato]

Thought for the day:

On July 1st, all the big-name players that everyone has been talking about in the NBA will officially become free agents.

Obviously, all eyes will be on LeBron James, including many of the big-name free agents like Amare Stoudemire and Chris Bosh, but there are a few players that teams will be talking to before courting LeBron in an effort to sign arguably the best player available this summer.

The one team that will be looking to seriously upgrade their roster during the offseason is the New York Knicks. There are plenty of teams that will a lot of money to spend this summer like the Miami Heat, Chicago Bulls, New Jersey Nets and Los Angeles Clippers, but none of these teams can offer these NBA superstars a chance to play in the biggest market in the league.