The third round of the US Open comes to a conclusion on Saturday with the bottom halves of both draws played to an end in what is fast becoming an epic tournament in New York.
Friday was another fantastic Flushing Meadows day with the defending champions in both draws taken to the limit in outstanding matches while more seeds fell with David Ferrer, Milos Raonic and David Goffin among those disappearing from the men’s draw and Belinda Bencic a casualty in the women’s.
Saturday sees some stellar names on show on what should be another belting day of action in the Big Apple. Andy Murray, Roger Federer, Stan Wawrinka and Tomas Berdych play in the men’s part of the draw while Simona Halep and Petra Kvitova are the standout names on the female side of things.
On the face of it there is going to be some one sided games if the odds are anything to go by but anyone who has watched the US Open down the years will know it rarely works out like that in this tournament. With that in mind I’m going with three bets on Saturday.
The first bet comes on the wonderful Grandstand court where Bernard Tomic takes on Richard Gasquet. Tomic showed really good resolve in the last round against Lleyton Hewitt. It was clear to see how much Hewitt meant to Tomic so he had to battle a lot of emotions to get the better of him especially deep in their fifth set.
Going five sets in the heat this tournament has been played in isn’t usually ideal but Tomic isn’t the only one to have done it. Gasquet went five in the first round and four in the last round so he has had his fair share of time on the court in the heat.
This match will be a battle of the backhands but Tomic’s extra pep on his serve should keep this competitive. I think there will be plenty of meat on this particular bone and the 8/11 on over 3.5 sets is a price I’m more than happy to get stuck into. Their last meeting went to a final set and they’ve been four at Wimbledon before. I think they’ll go four here too.
Andy Murray will be pleased that he is on the night session on Saturday after a gruelling match in the intense heat in the previous round but he might not be so happy to be facing Thomaz Bellucci on Saturday night.
Bellucci has the tools to be competitive on a hard court and against the top players. We saw Novak Djokovic struggle to put him away in one of the Masters series events in the lead up to this and the Brazilian took Wawrinka to four sets here in a night session last year.
I still expect Murray to win this match but given that he’s been four sets and five already in this tournament I think an 8.5 game handicap line is bordering on insulting to Bellucci. I actually think Bellucci has every chance of taking a set here but even if he doesn’t I still think he can stay within eight games of Murray here.
In the women’s draw Johanna Konta did me right in the previous round and I’m going to take her again in her match against Andrea Petkovic. Konta is playing really positive tennis right now and as long as she has recovered from her long ordeal against Muguruza I think she has every chance of the win here.
Petkovic doesn’t have the weapons or the attacking instinct of a Muguruza whereas Konta is playing with a real intent and plenty of power. At 13/8 she’s worth chancing that she is fresh enough to take care of the German.
Back B.Tomic vs R.Gasquet – Over 3.5 sets for a 5/10 stake at 1.73 with Paddy Power
Back T.Bellucci (+8.5 games) to beat A.Murray for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Betfred
Back J.Konta to beat A.Petkovic for a 3/10 stake at 2.63 with William Hill
