The opening day of the US Open sees the first round of the tournament getting underway right across the many courts at Flushing Meadows as the final Grand Slam of the year begins with all the glitz and glamour that comes with it.
We have the defending women’s champion and the favourite for the men’s title headlining what looks like a cracking schedule over the course of Monday so there is plenty to enjoy whether you are at the venue or watching on TV.
Arthur Ashe Stadium
Just the two matches are on the schedule in the day session these days and we begin with the defending champion on the women’s side of the draw when Iga Swiatek takes on Rebecca Peterson before two American players conclude the early part of proceedings when the number two men’s player in this part of the world, Frances Tiafoe, goes up against Learner Tien, who will be looking for his first victory in a Grand Slam here.
The night session looks a tasty one with the recent Cincinnati winner Coco Gauff opening up the show. The American star belongs on such a stage and will look to use the atmosphere to her advantage when she faces Laura Siegemund. Novak Djokovic returns to the tournament in the second part of the night session. He faces the US Open debutant Alexandre Muller who has nothing to lose and the perfect stage to try and cause a major upset.
Louis Armstrong Stadium
We have three matches in the day session on the second court on Monday and we begin with a couple of women’s clashes. The former finalist Victoria Azarenka will be first onto court when she meets Fiona Ferro before the 2017 champion Sloane Stephens takes on Beatriz Haddad Maia in one of the standout ties of the opening round. Two American males conclude the day session when the leading player from this country, Taylor Fritz, going up against the veteran Steve Johnson.
The night session on this court looks pretty tasty on Monday evening too. It is the men that get it underway when the Los Cabos champion Stefanos Tsitsipas looks to move into the second round in New York when he goes up against the former Wimbledon finalist Milos Raonic. The action on Armstrong concludes with the returning to tennis former finalist Caroline Wozniacki. The Dane has been given a decent stage to take on Tatiana Prozorova, who came through an absolute 3h29 epic in the final round of qualifying to take her place in the main draw.
Grandstand
There is a really good schedule over on the Grandstand court to keep us entertained throughout the course of the day and potentially into the evening. It begins with the former champion Dominic Thiem going up against the seeded Alexander Bublik before we head to the women’s draw for a couple of matches as Danielle Collins takes on the young star Linda Fruhvirtova before the former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina goes up against Marta Kostyuk. The final match on this court sees Christopher Eubanks taking on Soonwoo Kwon.
Court 17
The other show court at Flushing Meadows is Court 17 and there is a decent schedule out on that part of the grounds. We begin with the eighth seed in the women’s draw in Maria Sakkari who takes on Rebeka Masarova before the finalist of last year, Casper Ruud, looks to revive those memories when he meets Emilio Nava. Tommy Paul is a dark horse for many this year and he’ll look to use the home crowd to his advantage when he meets the qualifier Stefano Travaglia. The last match on this court sees the former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova taking on Cristina Bucsa.
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Best of the Rest
With 64 singles matches taking place over the course of the day there will be great tennis everywhere you look and surprisingly over on Court 5 we have the fourth seed Holger Rune and Felix Auger-Aliassime while Belinda Bencic and Francesco Cerundolo are on show over on Court 7. Adrian Mannarino, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Sebastian Korda, Karolina Muchova, Jelena Ostapenko and Magda Linette are just some of the other seeded players who are on show around the grounds.
Men’s Betting
I’ll take a couple from the men’s draw on Monday with the first of them coming in the form of Mackenzie McDonald to beat Felix Auger-Aliassime. It is probably an obvious pick given the struggles of the Canadian this season. FAA is 14-14 for the season which is nowhere near good enough for a player of his talent and he must be vulnerable to an American player who will be enjoying home advantage and who has gone 6-3 on the US hard courts this summer with wins over Karatsev, Rublev, Raonic and Rune in that time. Auger-Aliassime has won three of his last 14 matches dating back in Miami and never did things the easy way when things were going well and he was confident. I’ll take McDonald at odds against here.
I’ll also take on Christopher Eubanks too. He might feel more pressure in his home Slam after winning in Mallorca and having a good grass season. He hasn’t translated that into good results on the US hard courts though going 3-4 for that spell and losing his last three matches. He meets Soonwoo Kwon who has been out of the game for six months with a shoulder issue so we are taking the Korean at face value that he is fit and firing again. If he is we are looking at the man who has won in Adelaide earlier in the season when the likes of Pablo Carreno Busta, Jack Draper and Roberto Bautista Agut were among his victims. These two met the following week in the Australian Open when Eubanks won in a deciding set and if he is fit I fancy the Korean to stay that close again here, if not get the better of his man.
Women’s Betting
I’ll go with a couple in the women’s draw as well. You never truly know what you are going to get from Jelena Ostapenko but quite often it is a mixture of winners and a whole heap of erratic tennis. The Latvian goes into her match against the impressive unseeded Jasmine Paolini with one win from three matches on the US hard courts this season. Ostapenko has much the poorest record of all the Slams here too and that might be because all of the buzz gets into her head and she loses her composure. I don’t see that being the case with Paolini who went well in both Montreal and in Cincinnati and looks to be building confidence nicely. The Italian looks to be on the up and ranked 35 coming in here is one of the hardest first round opponents Ostapenko could have had. I think the Latvian comes up short here.
Katerina Siniakova did us a turn a couple of times at Wimbledon last month and I like her to come through her opening round match against Anna Kalinskaya. This feels like a big match for the Czech player who is giving singles a real go at the minute. She has lost all four hard court matches she has played this summer but after losing to Heather Watson in Warsaw which was a tough loss, her other three defeats have been to Liudmila Samsonova, Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova and Sara Sorribes Tormo where she probably would have been the outsider in all three. She meets a Kalinskaya who is playing for the first time since May after a leg injury which must have been serious if it has kept her out for three months. She might need a match or two to get back to speed and trusting herself. While SIniakova hasn’t won singles matches recently, she has been competing in doubles so she should have enough about her to come through here.
Tips
Back M.McDonald to beat F.Auger-Aliassime for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with Betway
Back S.Kwon (+5.5 games) to beat C.Eubanks for a 3/10 stake at 1.87 with BetVictor
Back J.Paolini to beat J.Ostapenko for a 3/10 stake at 2.80 with BetVictor
Back K.Siniakova to beat A.Kalinskaya for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with BetVictor
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