Our tennis man Andy Schooler has two bets for Thursday’s action at the US Open, with Victoria Azarenka backed to maintain her recent form.
Marton Fucsovics v Grigor Dimitrov
Fucsovics has made a flying start to the tour’s resumption and I’m not sure he deserves the underdog tag here.
The Hungarian won three matches in straight sets at this venue last week during the Western and Southern Open before taking out Dimitrov in three.
He was admittedly walloped by Filip Krajinovic in the following round but he quickly put that setback behind him by easing to a straight-sets win over Hugo Dellien on Tuesday.
Dimitrov was also a comfortable victor in round one but he spoke afterwards about how his physical shape is still not how he’d like it be – he’s suffered for many weeks following a positive COVID-19 test earlier in the summer.
Fucsovics is more than capable of pushing the higher-ranked player into a lengthy encounter here – that’s if his power doesn’t overpower Dimitrov more quickly – and if this match does go deep then Dimitrov’s condition may well cost him.
I’m happy to take Fucsovics to small stakes.
Victoria Azarenka v Aryna Sabalenka
There’s not too much I like on Thursday’s order of play but this is another match in which I’m not convinced the layers have the right favourite.
Azarenka is arguably playing her best tennis in years right now having won the title in New York last week with a string of impressive results.
In contrast, Sabalenka has struggled post-lockdown, winning just two matches across the Lexington and NY warm-up tournaments (and both of those were in three sets). She was also pushed hard by Oceane Dodin in her first match of this week.
She’s serving a lot of double-faults at present which can’t be helping confidence around her big-hitting ground game – her go-for-broke attitude means she treads a fine line between success and failure.
Sabalenka beat her fellow Belarussian in last year’s US Open but Azarenka, whose retrieving skills could well play a key part in this contest, has arrived in much better form this year and looks worth backing to turn the tables.
Preview posted at 2240 BST (02/09/20)
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