The final Grand Slam of the year gets underway under the bright lights of New York on Monday when the US Open starts out at Flushing Meadows on a day where some of the best players in the game take to the courts.
It could be a historic day in the Big Apple as it could be the final day that we see Serena Williams on a professional tennis court. She will steal the show but the supporting cast is of very high order throughout the afternoon and evening.
Arthur Ashe Stadium
We begin with Daniil Medvedev starting out on the defence of his title. The Russian hasn’t played Grand Slam tennis since the French Open and will be keen to make up for lost time when he takes on the home player Stefan Kozlov in one of just two matches in the day session. The other sees Coco Gauff, potentially the heir to Serena’s throne, taking on Leolea Jeanjean. We then move to the night session where the great Serena Williams takes to the court for what could be the final time. She meets Danka Kovinic who hasn’t won a match since the French Open. When they are done the action on the main court will be rounded off by the two men who won the Australian Open doubles earlier in the season as Nick Kyrgios takes on Thanasi Kokkinakis.
Louis Armstrong Stadium
Three matches form the day session on the Louis Armstrong Stadium on Monday and there will be plenty of British interest in the opening one as Andy Murray goes up against Francisco Cerundolo who will be hoping to follow him his good run on the same surface as this in Miami earlier in the season. When they are done Simona Halep starts out on her quest to win this title when she meets Daria Snigur before the pick of the women’s matches on this court sees Madison Keys taking on Danaya Yastremska. The night session opens up with Stefanos Tsitsipas going up against Daniel Galan before the beaten finalist of a year ago, Leylah Fernandez, meets Oceane Dodin.
Grandstand
The atmosphere on the Grandstand court is always great and sampling it first up on Monday will be Maria Sakkari. She has a dangerous challenge from the Wimbledon semi-finalist Tatjana Maria to overcome in order to make the second round. When they are done the former champion Bianca Andreescu goes up against a Harmony Tan who made a name for herself when she dumped Serena Williams out at Wimbledon. The day session concludes with Felix Auger-Aliassime meeting Alexander Ritschard. The night session sees Taylor Fritz meeting Brandon Holt, the son of former champion Tracey Austin.
Court 17
This is another court where the atmosphere is always decent as those with a ground pass get access to this court. Cincinnati champion Caroline Garcia opens up the action when she meets Kamilla Rakhimova before Matteo Berrettini goes up against Nicolas Jarry in what will potentially be a serve dominated contest. Montreal champion Pablo Carreno Busta when meets the 2020 champion Dominic Thiem before the number two seed Anett Kontaveit closes off the show when she takes on Jacqueline Cristian.
Best of the Rest
There is a full schedule on all the courts on this opening day of action and over on Court 5 the Wimbledon finalist Ons Jabeur and Roberto Bautista Agut head up the play while former French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova will be out on Court 10. Karen Khachanov, Jil Teichmann, Beatriz Haddad Maia, Alex de Minaur, Botic van de Zandschulp, Tommy Paul and Daria Kasatkina are some of the other seeds who will be dotted around the grounds on Monday.
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Men’s Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets over the course of the day in the men’s draw with the first of those coming in the match between the big servers Nicolas Jarry and Matteo Berrettini where I expect to see more than 34.5 games in these quick conditions. These two have booming serves which are going to be hard to get a grip of certainly in the early stages while they figure each other out. Berrettini has been battling himself all year so he might certainly need a set or two to find the form which took him to the semi-final here previously. Jarry should be up to speed having come through the qualifiers comfortably enough and so I see tiebreaks and maybe even a fourth set coming along here. That all points towards the over in that one.
The other bet I like involves a Chilean as well with Cristian Garin the man in question. He takes on the exciting Czech player Jiri Lehecka who has been doing some excellent work on the clay in recent times but who looked all at sea on the quicker hard courts at Winston-Salem last week. We are taking the fitness of Garin at face value because he hasn’t played for a month because of a wrist injury but if he is fit he should have the winning of this one. Garin has showed up in all three majors this year including at Wimbledon where he made the last eight before going down to Nick Kyrgios in a match which was probably a step too far after a true epic with Alex de Minaur the round before. Conditions were quick at Wimbledon so we know he can handle the faster conditions and his experience of New York should see him to victory on the assumption he is fully fit.
Women’s Betting
I’ll go with two in the women’s draw as well on Monday and the first of those comes in the form of the youngster Elina Avanesyan who did well to come through qualifying last week and looks to have landed a decent draw against the grossly out of form on a hard court Aleksandra Krunic. The Serbian has won just two from 10 matches on a hard court this season and you have to go back three years for the last time she beat someone ranked inside the top 90 on this surface. While she’s been doing some good work on the clay courts this is not going to be a slow clay court. Avanesyan is only just beginning her senior career but she has won three matches last week at qualifying and if last year taught us anything it is that qualifiers have to be respected in this draw. Avanesyan was a win away from qualifying for the Australian Open at the first time of asking so she can handle a hard court and might not need to do much more than she did last week to get the better of Krunic who has lost in the first round in four of her seven trips here.
The other bet I like is Shuai Zhang to get the better of the grossly inconsistent Swiss player Jil Teichmann. Picking the right day for Teichmann isn’t easy these days. She has won just three matches in nine attempts since the French Open and while one of those wins has come against Anett Kontaveit, the Estonian is struggling badly at the minute. To be fair to Teichmann her last two defeats have been to Simona Halep and Petra Kvitova which are no bad efforts but Zhang had five wins in Cincinnati and Cleveland and that includes a win over Naomi Osaka which is never a bad result on a hard court. Aryna Sabalenka and Alize Cornet were the two women who beat her. Zhang is the reigning doubles champion here so she has good memories of New York and with this match later in the day potentially negating the strength of the Swiss’ groundstrokes I think the Chinese player can make it through.
Tips
Back N.Jarry vs M.Berrettini – Over 34.5 games for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Boylesports
Back C.Garin to beat J.Lehecka for a 3/10 stake at 2.05 with Boylesports
Back them here:
Back E.Avanesyan to beat A.Krunic for a 3/10 stake at 2.38 with BetVictor
Back her here:
Back S.Zhang to beat J.Teichmann for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Betfair
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