The final Grand Slam of the year takes place in the women’s tennis world over the next two weeks when the leading lights in the game head to New York for the US Open, which as ever feels very wide open once again.
Coco Gauff took advantage of the open nature of this event to win her maiden Grand Slam title a year ago and she will look to become the first player in 10 years to make a successful defence of the crown. Plenty of players have their eye on this trophy though.
Recent Winners
2023 – Coco Gauff
2022 – Iga Swiatek
2021 – Emma Raducanu
2020 – Naomi Osaka
2019 – Bianca Andreescu
2018 – Naomi Osaka
2017 – Sloane Stephens
2016 – Angelique Kerber
2015 – Flavia Pennetta
2014 – Serena Williams
The Format
The normal Grand Slam rules apply to the women’s draw too in that 128 ladies qualify for the tournament and are placed in a knockout draw which was revealed on Friday. The entire tournament is the best of three sets with a match tiebreak in the final set at 6-6 should it be needed. The winner is crowned on the second Saturday evening inside the Arthur Ashe Stadium assuming the weather cooperates.
Top Quarter
Iga Swiatek remains the world number one and the 2022 champion here will go in search of a second US Open title from the top of the draw bracket as a result of that. The Polish star is set to run into the home player Jessica Pegula in what would be a tasty quarter final but six other seeded players will be out to stop that from happening, including the British number one Katie Boulter. The other seeds are Diana Shnaider, Danielle Collins who will be competing in her final Grand Slam over this fortnight, Liudmila Samsonova, Mirra Andreeva and Anastasia Pavluchenkova.
There are going to be plenty of household names who aren’t seeded right throughout this draw and in the top quarter the biggest of them might be the 2021 champion Emma Raducanu. Marie Bouzkova has been a seeded player in the not too distant past but that isn’t the case this year. She is in this quarter while Sara Errani will carry some confidence into the week after winning the doubles at the Olympics. Anna-Karolina Schmiedlova reached the semi-finals in Paris earlier in the month and she is in this quarter, as is the big hitting home pair of Shelby Rogers and Sofia Kenin.
Second Quarter
The former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina is the highest ranked player in the second quarter so she is the top seed in it as a result. She stands to face the French Open and Wimbledon finalist Jasmine Paolini in what would be an interesting quarter final should it happen. Yulia Putintseva, 2021 finalist here Laylah Fernandez, Jelena Ostapenko, Anna Kalinskaya, Beatriz Haddad Maia and Carolina Garcia are the six seeds who are out to stop that match from happening.
Two former champions and a past finalist are in the quarter as unseeded players. Naomi Osaka has actually won this title twice and she is in this section while Bianca Andreesccu was unstoppable when she landed the victory five years ago. Caroline Wozniacki has been one win away from the title here in the past. Karolina Muchova has a good Grand Slam record which she’ll want to maintain this fortnight while Karolina Pliskova and Linda Noskova are a pair of dangerous Czech players.
Third Quarter
The defending champion Coco Gauff will make a bid to successfully defend the title from the third quarter of the draw this year and if she goes all the way there is a chance she could run into the Wimbledon winner Barbora Krejcikova, who is looking for a second successive Grand Slam crown and the third leg of her own personal Grand Slam. Elina Svitolina is a well-known seeded player looking to stop that from happening. The other seeds in this quarter are Marta Kostyuk, Emma Navarro, Maria Sakkari, Victoria Azarenka and Paula Badosa.
Once again we have a former champion in the unseeded list in this quarter. This time it is the 2017 winner Sloane Stephens who will be eager to perform in front of a home crowd again. There will be British interest in this quarter because Harriet Dart is in this section while another American player looking for some wins is Taylor Townsend. Varvara Gracheva is having a decent year and she is in this quarter as are Martin Trevisan and Ana Bogdan.
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Bottom Quarter
Aryna Sabalenka won the latest WTA 1000 event in Cincinnati ahead of this tournament and she’ll look to do the American double from the bottom quarter this time around. She is the second seed and comfortably the highest seed in the quarter and is scheduled to face off against the Olympic champion Qinwen Zheng in what would be a very juicy quarter final. Out to deny that from happening from the seeded players are Dayana Yastremska, Donna Vekic, Daria Kasatkina, Madison Keys, Elise Mertens and Ekaterina Alexandrova.
There are not quite as many household names from the unseeded players in this quarter but the home player Aamanda Anisimova could be dangerous to Zheng in the first round if she is on her game. Peyton Stearns will be looking to go well in her home slam while Katerina Siniakova will be hoping for singles success to go along with her mixed doubles victory at the Olympics. Ajla Tomljanovic, Lulu Sun and Magda Linette are others who could be of interest.
Outright Betting
I’ll take a couple of Americans to come out on top in their home Grand Slam. Danielle Collins isn’t going to be short of support in this tournament given that it is the last time we will see her in a Grand Slam and given that she has already won in Miami this year I’m a little surprised that she is 40/1 to win this. Admittedly she is in the same quarter as Iga Swiatek but I don’t think Swiatek is necessarily as dangerous in this as she is on clay and we shouldn’t forget that for as good as she is on clay, she didn’t win the Olympics title so she feels vulnerable. I could never trust Jessica Pegula in a Slam until she has at least reached the last four of one so Collins looks like she is in a quarter which she can make hay from. I think 40/1 is a fair price if she can rediscover the form of earlier in the year.
I was keen to get stuck into the quarter which had Coco Gauff in it as her form has dropped off a cliff and I am more than happy to be on Emma Navarro, who wiped the floor with the defending champion here when they met at Wimbledon last month. Navarro is 25:10 on a hard court this season and won in Hobart so we know that she can take titles on this surface. I’ve already highlighted the indifferent form of Gauff and she’s pretty young to be defending a Grand Slam for the first time while I don’t think that Barbora Krejcikova is quite good enough on a hard court yet so this quarter should open right up and that could well be to the advantage of Navarro.
Quarter Betting
There isn’t a huge amount that I like in the quarter betting if I am honest. I wanted to get involved in Quarter 2 because Elena Rybakina never seems to finish a tournament regularly while Jasmine Paolini hasn’t done it on the big hard courts yet and has a potential banana skin with Bianca Andreescu in the opening round. In the end though there are just too many former champions or Grand Slam winners in that section for me to pick someone out so I’ll leave that alone and head to the bottom quarter.
In truth, it would be a bit of a surprise if Aryna Sabalenka doesn’t come through this section but I don’t think she’ll have it all her own way. This is a quarter where the Olympic champion Qinwen Zheng could go out in the first round if Amanda Anisimova arrives with her best tennis. If that happens then there might not be much to stop Donna Vekic getting to the quarter final whereas Sabalenka might need to get the better of Madison Keys to get there and there would be no absolute guarantee that happens. Vekic is playing the tennis of her life having reached the Wimbledon semi-final and the Olympic final in the last six weeks and the 25/1 on her making another major semi-final here could quickly look a bit big.
Tips
Back D.Collins to win US Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 41.00 with Sky Bet (1/2 1-2)
Back E.Navarro to win US Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 51.00 with Unibet (1/2 1-2)
Back D.Vekic to win Quarter 4 for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with William Hill
Back her here:
