It promises to be a special evening of tennis inside the Arthur Ashe Stadium on Friday when the men’s semi-finals are played out. Heading into the second week of the tournament hopes were high for our first Nadal vs Federer clash in NYC but as ever that party was spoiled.
Nevertheless we have two intriguing semi-finals to look forward to. We are guaranteed a new Grand Slam finalist and whoever that is will take on a former champion in Sunday’s final. There is also the men’s doubles final on show but having not got involved in the pairs so far I will leave that match alone.
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Kevin Anderson vs Pablo Carreno Busta
The first semi-final is between two men who will be competing in their first match at this stage of a Grand Slam when Kevin Anderson takes on Pablo Carreno Busta. The winner will not only make it into Sunday’s final but do their ranking the world of good as well as pocket a whole heap of cash.
Anderson has been majestic in this tournament thus far. He has only dropped two sets and they were both on tiebreaks. His big serve is getting backed up by huge ground strokes and he looks on top of his game.
Carreno Busta has gone even better than Anderson. He is yet to drop a set in this tournament and has played his last two matches on Ashe so he will be getting used to the arena. PCB has shown some good variety in this tournament and plenty of heart and the latter should serve him well in the biggest match of his career.
Both these men have had kind draws we need to say that but that won’t matter when they are on the court. I believe Anderson has played the better so far though and the experience he has in his career should serve him well here. His serve is the biggest weapon on show and I think that is important. These two met in Montreal last month and Anderson won in straight sets. PCB might take a set in this but no more in my eyes.
Rafael Nadal vs Juan Martin del Potro
Rafael Nadal booked his place in what was expected to be the heavyweight showdown but nobody showed the script to Juan Martin del Potro who stood up and dumped Roger Federer out of the tournament. The Argentine will now take on the Spaniard in what is a repeat of the 2009 semi-final.
I think it is fair to say that Nadal did not look at his best in the first week of the tournament but he has looked much more like the world number one in the last two rounds. It should be said he faced weak opposition in those matches but he can only beat what is in front of him.
Del Potro has had the hardest draw of any of the semi-finalists having had to come through a titanic tussle with Dominic Thiem in the last 16 before outlasting Roger Federer on Wednesday night in the quarter final. It is not the first time we’ve seen the likeable Argentine get inspired in these surroundings though.
Nadal leads the head to head between these two 8-5 but del Potro leads 5-4 on hard courts including an epic Olympic semi-final last year which was their last meeting and he trounced Nadal in the 09 semi here. I don’t know if he will trounce Nadal here but his power game sets up well against Nadal. The Spaniard is never the most convincing when his time is taken away. I think the Argentine is massive value here.
Tips
WON – Back K.Anderson (-1.5 sets) to beat P.Carreno Busta for a 5/10 stake at 1.75 with BetVictor
Back him here:
Back J-M.del Potro to beat R.Nadal for a 3/10 stake at 3.60 with Paddy Power
Back him here:
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