The second round of the US Open tennis competition will finish as far as both singles draws are concerned on Thursday, weather permitting, and it will do so with the big names trying to make it into the last 32 where Grand Slams these days really begin.
We lost a couple of big names from each draw on Wednesday but all of the stars in this side of the draw came through unscathed in the first round and are in action again on Thursday looking to avoid upsets of their own.
Arthur Ashe Stadium
Around 12-18 months ago the opening match on this court between Lucie Safarova and Simona Halep would be an epic. It still could be if the Czech can display her best form. That is followed by Andy Murray taking on Marcel Granollers before the day session ends with Julia Goerges facing Venus Williams.
The evening session kicks off with Serena Williams facing her American compatriot Vania King before another American takes to court when Steve Johnson faces Juan Martin del Potro in what should be a high class, full power battle.
Louis Armstrong Stadium
You know it is a good schedule when Kei Nishikori is on one of the other courts. He begins the day on Armstrong when he takes on Russia’s Karen Khachanov. Agnieszka Radwanska goes up against Naomi Broady in the second match on court before Carla Suarez Navarro faces Jelena Jankovic. The action concludes with Stan Wawrinka’s match against Alessandro Giannessi.
Grandstand
There is a decent schedule on Grandstand on Thursday too which begins with the form horse Karolina Pliskova facing Montserrat Gonzalez of Paraguay before Dominic Thiem plays Ricardas Berankis. Shuai Zhang plays the former champion Sam Stosur after that before the late game sees Nick Kyrgios facing Horacio Zeballos.
Best of the Rest
If you have a ground pass on Thursday you’ll be able to see some decent players and potentially some good matches. David Ferrer vs Fabio Fognini out on Court 17 should be entertaining while Timea Bacsinszky is also on that court as is Ivo Karlovic who belted down just the 61 aces in the first round!
Feliciano Lopez against Joao Sousa should be a good match for those hovering around Court 5 while Britain’s Dan Evans faces Alexander Zverev on that court too. Elsewhere Grigor Dimitrov, Gilles Simon and Elena Vesnina are dotted around the complex on the fourth day of action.
Betting
We’ve had a couple of good days betting wise in this tournament now and I’m going with four bets to hopefully build on that on Thursday. Two of them are in the men’s draw and two of them are on the women’s side of things.
In the men’s event I am going with the runner up from last week Pablo Carreno Busta when he takes on Janko Tipsarevic. Credit must go to the Serb for winning a Challenger event recently to build up confidence and then beating Sam Querrey in the first round here but I think his run is due to end against a Carreno Busta who has been playing well all season on hard courts where he has had a couple of decent wins in recent weeks.
In the match Carreno Busta has to give up 4.5 games but I’m not sure that is enough as I fancy the Spaniard to come through without too many issues. I’ll side with him there.
I’m going to take another Spaniard too in David Ferrer who has to give up the same amount of games against Fabio Fognini. The Italian is up against it here. These two men have met on nine previous occasions and Ferrer has won all nine. Indeed Fognini has only won three sets in that time so this is not a good match up for him.
If that isn’t bad enough Fognini had to go five arduous sets in the first round while Ferrer’s opponent retired in the first set. We know this is a bad match for Fognini and the evidence suggests it can be again so I’m with Ferrer’s consistency against Fognini’s mixed bag.
In the women’s draw I’m going to side with a girl who went so well here last year in Kiki Mladenovic. She faces Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova for a place in the third round and while the Russian can’t be ruled out or written off I think the power that the French player has could be too much here. Mladenovic won their only previous meeting a few years ago and I think she can double up here.
I’m also going to take Laura Siegemund to end the hopes of Nicole Gibbs. Gibbs had a good win in the first round but she isn’t playing well this year and I expect that to show here. Siegemund’s rise through the rankings has been sudden and extreme but the evidence suggests she hasn’t stopped yet and her momentum and extra class should be significant against an opponent who has struggled for back to back wins all year.
Tips
Back P.Carreno Busta (-4.5 games) to beat J.Tipsarevic for a 4/10 stake at 1.94 with Unibet
Back D.Ferrer (-4.5 games) to beat F.Fognini for a 4/10 stake at 1.93 with Unibet
Back them here:
Back K.Mladenovic to beat A.Pavlyuchenkova for a 4/10 stake at 2.50 with 888sport
Back her here:
WON – Back L.Siegemund to beat N.Gibbs for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Betfair
Back her here:
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