The opening day of the US Open sees both singles draws getting up and running at Flushing Meadows on Monday when spots in the second round of the final Grand Slam of the year are on the line for those competing.
We have a fairly balanced draw for the two singles tournaments which means that the big names are nicely spread out but we have both defending champions headlining the action on what looks like a decent enough day one schedule.
Arthur Ashe Stadium
As has been the case for a few years now, we have two matches on the Arthur Ashe Stadium in the day session and two more at night. The American big server Ben Shelton, semi-finalist here a year ago, opens up the action when he goes up against the former winner Dominic Thiem before Coco Gauff gets her title defence underway when she meets the competent French player Varvara Gracheva. The women start the night session on Monday too when another former champion Sloane Stephens takes on Clara Burel. It will then be the turn of Novak Djokovic to begin his title defence when he takes on the experienced Radu Albot.
Louis Armstrong Stadium
We have three matches in the day session over on the Louis Armstrong Stadium with an American player involved in all three. The opener sees the newly crowned Olympic champion Qinwen Zheng meeting Amanda Anisimova in what looks a cracking start to the event. When they are done Taylor Fritz will get his home Grand Slam up and running. He meets Camilo Ugo Carabelli for a spot in the second round. The day session will be closed out by Madison Keys going up against the doubles specialist Katerina Siniakova. Two matches take place in the night session on this court too with Frances Tiafoe opening the action when he meets Aleksandar Kovacevic before Aryna Sabalenka begins her title quest when she takes on Priscilla Hon.
Grandstand
Four matches make up a pretty decent looking schedule over on the Grandstand on Monday and it begins with our main outright bet for the week in Alexander Zverev. He takes on his fellow German player Maximilian Marterer. When those two have settled their contest Paula Badosa will look to make it into the second round at the expense of Viktorija Golubic. The third match onto the Grandstand on Monday sees two veterans going at it as Gael Monfils takes on Diego Schwartzman before we round off with Victoria Azarenka looking to make it into the second round when she faces off against the lowly ranked Yulia Starodubtseva.
Court 17
There is usually a very good schedule over on Court 17 in the early parts of any US Open and that remains the case this time around too as Maria Sakkari gets the action up and running when she takes on Yafan Wang. Casper Ruud is the highest ranked player on show on this court on Monday and he’ll be hoping for a smooth passage into the second round when he takes on Yunchaokete Bu. Taylor Townsend will be looking to give the home crowds something to cheer in the third match on this court when she faces the former French Open semi-finalist Martina Trevisan before we close the show with an entertaining looking contest between Holger Rune and Brandon Nakashima.
Special Offer
Open a new Sporting Index account and bet £10 on the US Open (min odds 1/2) to get £20 in free bets (2x£10 free bets) to use on any sports market! Click the image below to take advantage of this great offer! 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Responsibly.
Best of the Rest
As always on the opening day of a Grand Slam there is a packed schedule out on the outside courts with a number of seeds in first round action on them. There is a really good card over on Court 5 where Elina Svitolina, Andrey Rublev, Grigor Dimitrov and the Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova are all on show while elsewhere we have the likes of Ugo Humbert, Alexander Bublik, Donna Vekic, Canada champion Alexei Popyrin, Marta Kostyuk, Lorenzo Musetti and Emma Navarro all looking to make the second round.
Men’s Betting
There are two outsiders that I’m keen to get on over the course of the action on Monday. Tomas Martin Etcheverry was always someone I wanted to get beat and given that he meets the more than competent Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard I’m definitely happy to play the Argentine to lose. The Frenchman has a big serve which should get him a lot of free points on this surface but Etcheverry just doesn’t look comfortable on a hard court. The recent records of the two on this sort of surface is telling. Etcheverry is 4-7 on it this year and now 21-32 in his career. Admittedly some of the Perricard form on it is a much lower level and Grand Slam level but he is 21-10 on it this year and since the beginning of 2023 he is 47-27 on hard courts overall. He has won four Challenger titles on a hard court in the last 20 months and feels much more naturally suited to it. I think he’s a big price to get the job done here.
The other player I want to take on is Holger Rune. To be fair to the Dane, he’ll probably have good memories of New York because it is here where he announced himself to the world a couple of years ago but he is far too erratic for me to like at odds on, especially against a Brandon Nakashima who knows his way around a hard court, is going to have plenty of support, which might get to Rune over the course of a potential five sets, especially as this is on Court 17 where there is always a good atmosphere with it being a court which is open to those with a grounds pass. It is the late game too which should add to the support for the American. To be fair to Rune, he had a good run in Cincinnati, taking care of Matteo Berrettini, Gael Monfils and Jack Draper before losing to Frances Tiafoe in the semi-final but Nakashima has had some good hard court wins recently having knocked off Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul and Denis Shapovalov among others in recent weeks. This feels like a tight clash and that support and motivation of a home slam just makes Nakashima overpriced to me.
Women’s Betting
The second the draw came out, one match which jumped off the page was the one between the Olympic champion Qinwen Zheng and Amanda Anisimova, the recent Toronto finalist who took care of Daria Kasatkina, Anna Kalinskaya, Aryna Sabalenka and Emma Navarro in Canada before going down to Jessica Pegula in a deciding set in the final. I like Zheng but her hard court form since she made the Australian Open final isn’t what she would like it to be and if Anisimova has her best tennis with her here then the American can take the racquet out of the hand of anyone in the field. Anisimova can be erratic but she should be full of confidence after that run to the final in Toronto and looks a big price to dump the Olympic champion out.
The other bet I like is for Lulu Sun to get the better of Lucia Bronzetti with a little bit in hand. These two met in Cincinnati a couple of weeks ago and Sun got the better of the Italian player 76 63 and I would expect her to do a similar job on her here. We never really knew Sun before Wimbledon but she had a brilliant run to the last 16 there and will be looking to build on that here. Since Wimbledon, the Kiwi has beaten Shelby Rogers and Linda Noskova as well as Bronzetti in Cincinnati and then made the final in Monterrey last week where Ekaterina Alexandrova and Erika Andreeva were among her victims. Sun is 20-8 on hard courts this year and 103-54 since the beginning of 2020. Bronzetti is 8-15 this year and was only 19-19 on hard courts in 2023. This feels like a great chance for Sun to win and win well.
Tips
Back G.Mpetshi Perricard to beat T-M.Etcheverry for a 3/10 stake at 2.30 with BetVictor
Back B.Nakashima to beat H.Rune for a 3/10 stake at 2.60 with Betway
Back A.Anisimova to beat Q.Zheng for a 3/10 stake at 2.63 with Sky Bet
Back L.Sun (-2.5 games) to beat L.Bronzetti for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Boylesports
Back her here:
