Tennis Betting Advice - August 2018
US Open: Bets of the Day – two 3rd Round picks…
Friday 31st August 2018
In your Ones to Watch email today:
Good morning and welcome to Day Five of your US Open 2018 service…
Play starts from 4pm, UK time.
Ups and downs…
On Thursday night I was up past 2am to watch John Isner come through a five-set match – and win. On those occasions, the lack of sleep doesn’t get to me much. Adrenaline, I guess.
Last night I was up even later to suffer through Caroline Wozniacki getting knocked out in the 2nd Round. And that came several hours after Monica Puig was edged out in a final-set battle. Suffice to say, this morning I feel like I’ve had the stuffing knocked out of me.
I’ve been doing this a long time though and I have long since figured out where my ‘reset’ button is. I’ve pushed it firmly this morning. We move on…
Blockbusters in store…
The 3rd Round starts today and there are some absolute blockbusters on the upcoming schedule.
There are loads of big matches to come and the way this year’s draws are looking, we don’t have to wait for the semi finals for the bigtime matches to come along…
On the 3rd Round ‘popcorn’ list we have exciting match-ups including: Nick Kyrgios v Roger Federer, Sloane Stephens v Victoria Azarenka, Serena Williams v Venus Williams, Borna Coric v Daniil Medvedev, Milos Raonic v Stan Wawrinka, Denis Shapovalov v Kevin Anderson and Petra Kvitova v Aryna Sabalenka.
An intriguing mix of players old & new there, Grand Slam champions and pretenders to the throne – and a few fiery tempers thrown in for good measure.
On the betting front, we’ll be getting involved with a couple of those for sure. The 3rd Round matches start at 4pm today and run until the early hours of Sunday morning. See below for today’s picks.
Top draw picks in action…
The Friday order of play is made up of the top half of the both the Men’s and Women’s draws.
That means that in the Outright Winner market we have John Isner (50/1) playing today in the Men’s, and Elise Mertens (66/1) & Karolina Pliskova (20/1) in the Women’s:
Isner is the 1/4 (1.25) favourite to beat Dusan Lajovic. The head-to-head is 4-2 to our man, with Isner wining 3 out of 3 meetings since the start of last season.
Mertens is a 4/9 (1.44) favourite to get past Barbora Strycova in what will be a first ever meeting between the two.
Pliskova is short odds-on at 2/7 (1.29) to beat American teenager Sofia Kenin, in the late night match (2am+ UK time) on the new Louis Armstrong court. Pliskova won their only previous meeting, 2-0 here at the US Open two years ago.
Battle of the young guns…
Borna Coric v Daniil Medvedev is a field day for the ‘#NextGen’ crowd, with the 21-year-old Croatian taking on the 22-year-old Russian…
Both these young men are tipped for big things – hence the Next Generation tag. Both of them absolutely belt the ball. And both have been known to smash a few rackets and get a bit heated.
So far the head-to-head is a mini rollercoaster, with many more meetings sure to come as these two shoot for the bigtime. Current World No.20 Coric beat Medvedev 2-0 in Cincinnati recently; World No.36 Medvedev beat Coric 3-0 at Wimbledon this summer. They also traded blows at the end of last season in the inaugural ATP Next Gen Finals.
The Match Winner market has Coric at a best price 4/6 (1.67), with his in-form Russian opponent (8 match wins in a row) as the slight underdog at 5/4 (2.25).
The verdict: this will be close.
Over 3.5 Sets is as short as 2/5 (1.40) but we can get Evens (2.00) in the Total Games market, where Over 38.5 Games is the pick. This should be an entertaining match and it could go the distance.
This match is due to start 10pm+.
Borna Coric v Daniil Medvedev:
BET: Total Games – Over 38.5 Games @ 53/50
BOOKIES: 53/50 (2.06) Marathonbet, Evens (2.00) Ladbrokes, Coral, Betfred
Looking for the upsets…
In the Women’s, I’m sticking to my guns when it comes to taking on World No.7 Elina Svitolina. The highly-touted 23-year-old is known to wobble under the weight of expectation at Grand Slam level and faces a tricky opponent today…
Qiang Wang arrives here in top form, riding a 7-match winning streak after taking Gold for China at the Asian Games on hard courts last week. Wang has shown no signs of slowing after that triumph, with two 2-0 wins in the first two rounds here in New York. The scores have been pretty emphatic: 6-2, 6-2 and 6-3, 6-1.
These two have met twice before, both time on hard courts (2017 and 2018) – and on both occasions the Chinese outsider pushed the Ukrainian to a deciding set. Today will be their first meeting under Grand Slam conditions. Wang looks every inch a banana skin opponent here.
This match is due to start 5.30pm+.
Match Winner:
BET: Qiang Wang to beat Elina Svitolina @ 13/5
BOOKIES: 13/5 (3.60) BetVictor, Boylesports, 5/2 (3.50) Bet365, William Hill, Betway
In summary…
Here are today’s Bets of the Day (see above for full details):
I’ll be back at 10am tomorrow with your Bets of the Day for Saturday.
Enjoy the tennis…
Best wishes,
Tom Wilson