The final Grand Slam of 2019 begins on Monday when the stars of the tennis world head to New York for the US Open. The Big Apple always guarantees drama, excitement and plenty of excellent action and we should see nothing different this time round.
Novak Djokovic heads to the American city as the defending champion after he saw off Juan Martin del Potro in last year’s final. He will be looking to make a successful defence but as we’ve seen in the US hard court swing this tournament has a more open feel to it.
Recent Winners
2018 – Novak Djokovic
2017 – Rafael Nadal
2016 – Stan Wawrinka
2015 – Novak Djokovic
2014 – Marin Cilic
2013 – Rafael Nadal
2012 – Andy Murray
2011 – Novak Djokovic
2010 – Rafael Nadal
2009 – Juan Martin del Potro
The Format
As with all men’s Grand Slam’s the tournament is played over the best of five sets throughout the event. The final set will be decided by a tiebreak if the scores reach 6-6 in it so there is no extended sets at any stage of the competition. 128 men have made it into the draw and they have been placed into the bracket already. The event is knockout from day one with the champion being decided on the second Sunday night of the tournament.
Top Quarter
As the world number one as well as the defending champion, Novak Djokovic is the number one seed this week and as a result he is in the top quarter of the draw. The first thing to note about his draw is that he has landed the toughest potential quarter final opponent he could have done with the Cincinnati champion Daniil Medvedev the other main seed in this quarter. The other seeded players in the top part of the draw are Dusan Lajovic, Stan Wawrinka, Fabio Fognini, Nikoloz Basilashvili and Taylor Fritz.
There are plenty of standout names among those who don’t have a seeding in this section. Queens champion Feliciano Lopez is in here as is former Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych. Big hitting American Reilly Opelka and young stars Miomir Kecmanovic and Hubert Hurkacz are also in this quarter. The highly rated Jannik Sinner is also eyeing up a shock or two from this section of the event.
Second Quarter
If you look at the list of recent winners of this tournament amazingly there is no Roger Federer on it. That is because the Swiss player hasn’t won this title since 2008 and he will be looking to put that right from this second section of the draw. If the event goes to the seedings he will take on former finalist Kei Nishikori in the quarter final. As ever there are a number of seeds looking to stop that from happening. They are Cristian Garin, Borna Coric, David Goffin, Guido Pella and Lucas Pouille.
There will be a decent British interest in this quarter with both Dan Evans and Cameron Norrie looking to do some damage from it while other unseeded players who catch the eye are former semi-finalist Pablo Carreno Busta, Grigor Dimitrov, Jack Sock, Pablo Cuevas, Nicolas Jarry and Alex de Minaur. They will all be looking for decent runs out in New York this year.
Third Quarter
This is the section headed up by the Indian Wells champion from earlier in the year in Dominic Thiem. He has lost some cracking showdowns here in the past and will be hoping this is his year. If everything goes to the seedings he will come face to face with Stefanos Tsitsipas in the last eight. Washington champion Nick Kyrgios is one of the seeds out to stop that from taking place. The other seeds here are Matteo Berrettini, Roberto Bautista Agut, Gael Monfils, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Kyle Edmund.
Denis Shapovalov stands out among the players without a seeding to their name in this quarter of the draw but the likes of Marco Cecchinato, Richard Gasquet, Joao Sousa and Steve Johnson have all had good runs in Grand Slams in the past. Gilles Simon and Andrey Rublev will be out to build on decent enough summers by upsetting a few throughout the opening week or so in the Big Apple.
Bottom Quarter
This is where the former champion Rafael Nadal will look to win the tournament from. The Montreal Masters winner arrives in New York in decent enough form and given that Alexander Zverev is the main seed opposing him in this section you could forgive him for expecting a decent run this fortnight. Montreal semi-finalist Karen Khachanov is in this quarter too with the other seeds being Winston Salem finalist Benoit Paire, Diego Schwartzman, John Isner, Marin Cilic and Fernando Verdasco.
There are some eye catching names among the unseeded fraternity in this bottom quarter of the draw with the man who beat Roger Federer here in that epic night match last year very much one of them. That was John Millman while Jan-Lennard Struff has been in good form recently. Ivo Karlovic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga might be in the twilight of their careers but they can still be dangerous. American star Frances Tiafoe won’t lack for support.
Special Offer
Bet £10 on the Men’s Outright market with William Hill and get a £5 free bet to use on any other market in the tournament! Click the image below to bet! All customers! 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Aware.
Outright Betting
I’m keen to avoid the top half where Novak Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev and Roger Federer are housed and head to the bottom half where Rafael Nadal looks to have an easier draw on paper but as ever will his body handle the strain of two weeks of hard court action? I’m not convinced so I’m taking two others in the section.
I was really hoping Roberto Bautista Agut would get a good draw this week and landing in that third quarter he has done exactly that. He is in with Dominic Thiem, whose win in Indian Wells is looking more and more a fluke with every hardcourt week that goes by, and Stefanos Tsitsipas whose form has fallen off a cliff in recent times. We probably shouldn’t ignore Nick Kyrgios but you just know he’ll get wound up somewhere and that could be curtains when he does. Gael Monfils has had a decent season but I like RBA in this section. He won his quarter at Wimbledon and had Djokovic on the ropes in the semi-final at times. He is at a career high 10 in the world after runs to the quarter finals in Montreal and Cincinnati. He made the quarter finals in the Australian Open and beat Djokovic in Miami earlier in the season so the 66/1 on him going deep looks too big.
Karen Khachanov was in the same quarter as Rafael Nadal in this tournament last year and produced a titanic effort before going down to him in a fourth set tiebreak but he has improved since then and arrives here off the back of a decent week in Montreal and a game effort in Cincinnati where the schedule went against him in the end. He made the quarter final in the French Open so he can go deep in a Grand Slam. The Russian won in Paris at the end of last year and might well get conditions to suit in New York. He’s another who is a big price around the 66/1 mark.
Quarter Betting
I’ll let the Djokovic/Medvedev quarter ride, partly because I expect Djokovic to win it but also because both have some tests before that quarter final happens but I’ll get involved in the other three quarters. In the third and fourth quarters I’m going with my outright bets from above in Roberto Bautista Agut and Karen Khachanov and I’ll add another for the second quarter.
That is where Roger Federer is housed but I’m not convinced he likes this tournament too much since the courts have slowed down. He couldn’t get anything past John Millman last year and if he meets Kei Nishikori in the quarter final the same could happen here. There are a lot of young guns that you can make a case for here but I like the Japanese star. He has made the quarter final in all three Grand Slams this year and his record in New York in the last five seasons stands up to anything having made the final and two semi-finals. Three quarter wins in five years is good from and I’ve seen something recently where he declared how much he loves this tournament. Those good vibes can see him land a punt at Sky Bet’s standout 15/1.
Tips
Back R.Bautista Agut to win US Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 67.00 with William Hill (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back K.Khachanov to win US Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 67.00 with Boylesports (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back K.Nishikori to win 2nd Quarter for a 1/10 stake at 16.00 with Sky Bet
Back R.Bautista Agut to win 3rd Quarter for a 2/10 stake at 7.00 with BetVictor
Back him here:
Back K.Khachanov to win 4th Quarter for a 1/10 stake at 15.00 with 888sport
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2019
