We’ve reached the second week of the US Open and at the end of Monday we will know the quarter final line up for both the men and the women.
Sunday saw Novak Djokovic tested as he dropped his first set of the event while the defending champions Marin Cilic and Serena Williams cruised into the last eight. Serena set up a clash with her sister Venus for Tuesday. Cilic faces Tsonga for a place in the semi-final.
On Monday it is the turn of Roger Federer, Stan Wawrinka and Andy Murray to look to book their spots in the quarter final. None of them have easy matches with Federer facing the American big server John Isner, Wawrinka also faces an American in the form of Donald Young and Murray takes on Kevin Anderson in a repeat of the Queens final.
In the women’s draw Petra Kvitova takes on the British rising star Johanna Konta while Simona Halep faces Sabine Lisicki in a mouthwatering match up. Sam Stosur, a former champion here, faces Flavia Pennetta and the other match sees Victoria Azarenka taking on Varvara Lepchenko.
It is Labor Day out in the States which is a bank holiday so the stands are likely to be packed throughout the day which should create an excellent atmosphere and potentially inspire the American trio on show.
In the men’s draw there is the potential for a couple of matches to be closer than they look on paper. Although Murray neutralised Anderson’s serve at Queens Anderson is in superb form right now and that could easily have four or five sets while John Isner’s booming serve could make Roger Federer think a little bit.
Tomas Berdych and Richard Gasquet have met on 12 previous occasions with it being 6-6 overall. Their matches tend to be one sided either way so I’m not sure which way that one will go but when Wawrinka and Young play it is totally the opposite.
They’ve met twice and they’ve both gone the distance. One of them was in this very tournament when Young won in a fifth set tie-break and Wawrinka got his revenge in the other match which went to a third set out in China so there is enough to believe there will be plenty of meat on this bone.
Young is playing some good stuff and the fact he has come from two sets down twice in this tournament shows he never knows when he is beaten. I don’t think Wawrinka has been anywhere near his best in this tournament either.
He has won all nine sets he has played in the event but he’s needed a tie-break in five of those. At some point he’s going to drop a set and while I think he’ll win this match it may not be without a clean slate here. At 11/10 I’ll take over 3.5 sets.
The match of the women’s draw on Monday is the Halep vs Lisicki match. Lisicki had to struggle through the previous round coming from 1-5 in the final set to win 7-5 but that showed that she isn’t in the greatest form at the minute.
Halep has breezed to this stage and unless Lisicki improves on what we’ve seen it could be a little one sided. That said on the face of it the handicap looks about right at 5.5 games. I think Konta’s run will end at the hands of Kvitova and I would imagine Azarenka will win the other game but she was on court for a while on Saturday and might be fatigued so I’ll leave that game alone too.
I will take one on Monday with the women though and it is in the Stosur match where Pennetta actually leads their head to head 6-0 and in those six matches Stosur has only won a total of two sets.
Stosur is a former champion here but she had to come through a third set to beat Sara Errani in the previous round but as luck would have it Errani is Pennetta’s doubles partner in this tournament so I’m sure some information will have been passed on there!
Based on what has gone before Pennetta might not need the information. She clearly matches up well to the Australian and at 5/6 she simply has to be backed.
Back S.Wawrinka vs D.Young – Over 3.5 sets for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with Paddy Power
Back F.Pennetta to beat S.Stosur for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Boylesports
