Day one of the US Open was a day of shocks with a number of seeds in both the men’s and women’s draws falling by the wayside on a sultry day in New York.
Those who didn’t play on Monday will have seen the carnage that took place and that will make the more established players even more nervous than they were before and give those looking to make a name for themselves the platform to do it.
Tuesday sees some more top players begin their quest for the title. Stan Wawrinka, Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Tomas Berdych, Simona Halep, Petra Kvitova and Carolina Wozniacki are all among a plethora of tennis stars in action on another bumper day at Flushing Meadows.
Andy Murray’s match will get the baulk of the attention not least because he opens the night session but also because he plays the new bad boy of tennis in Nick Kyrgios. A couple of months ago a titanic tussle might have been the order of the day there but the fallout from the Australian’s incident with Stan Wawrinka last month has clearly affected him and Murray can now be expected to win easily.
Roger Federer has no walk in the park against Leonardo Mayer although it would still be a huge surprise were the Swiss legend to be beaten. Mayer is well ranked in the game but there are levels in this sport and you’d expect Federer to be one or two above the Argentinian.
Simona Halep is the leading light on the women’s draw in action on Tuesday. She takes on Marina Erakovic in a match which could be tricky if she lets it be. Victoria Azarenka begins her quest for the title against Lucie Hradecka.
There is a bit of betting potential around on Tuesday. The first bet I like sees Denis Kudla going up against Jurgen Melzer. The Austrian did well to come through qualifying for this tournament but he is primarily a doubles player now and I think he will meet his match here.
Kudla has enjoyed a decent year. He took Feliciano Lopez the distance and beyond in Australia at the start of the year and made the last 16 at Wimbledon where he beat a couple of well ranked players and took a set off Marin Cilic in defeat in the second week. He’s won a challenger event too so the American is having a decent year.
Melzer isn’t having much of a year it has to be said. He hasn’t won many matches this year which made it something of a surprise that he qualified for this tournament but I expect the improving Kudla to take care of him here. Kudla has competed with and beaten some top servers so Melzer’s serve shouldn’t be an issue. I expect the American to win this without needing a final set.
One of the heroes of Wimbledon was Dustin Brown and he looks a decent price to see off a fast becoming overrated Robin Haase on Tuesday. Brown took care of Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon and there is no reason why his serve and volleying tactic won’t work against the Dutchman.
Haase is very much all or nothing as we saw at Wimbledon when he was quite frankly awful against Andy Murray in the second round. Since Wimbledon he has only won one match at main tour level and he needed his opponent to retire when he was leading for Haase to win that so he isn’t in great form and looks there for the taking here.
Dustin Brown hasn’t done a lot since Wimbledon either apart from a couple of wins in Newport shortly after but we saw at Wimbledon that he is a big stage player and the last slam could bring the best out of him. He’s had a better year than Haase and that can be the difference here.
Moving over to the women’s draw and even though she’s a former champion here I’m always keen to take on Sam Stosur and I’m going to do that again. Since she won here in 2011 the Australian has made a QF and then won only one match in the last two years.
Stosur faces Timea Babos in this match in a repeat of their meeting in Cincinnati recently. Babos beat Stosur on that occasion and I think she’s good value to beat her again. Babos has been practicing with Simona Halep in the build up to this tournament which is good preparation and with the Australian never the most reliable under pressure she’s well worth opposing here.
Back D.Kudla (-1.5 sets) to beat J.Melzer for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Boylesports
Back D.Brown to beat R.Haase for a 4/10 stake at 2.25 with Paddy Power
Back T.Babos to beat S.Stosur for a 3/10 stake at 3.20 with Boylesports
