US Open - Mens Day 2 Tips

Our first tip on Tuesday comes in the Pablo Cuevas v Damir Dzumhur match up, where it’s a case of the courts suiting the Bosnian far better than the clay orientated Cuevas.

Cuevas has marched up the rankings on the basis of his almost exclusive clay results, but things have been tough lately for the Uruguayan, with five straight defeats now. Only 15% of his career matches have been played on Hard Courts, and he has a losing record over those (51-58) despite being ranked 31st in the world currently.

Dzhumur is only slightly more inclined to desert the clay, playing 20% of his career matches on hard courts, but he has also ventured indoors for a decent number of events, indicating an element of adaptation in his game. He’s also been in lovely form lately – reaching the final of the Winston-Salem Open (Hard Court), the final of the Santo Domingo Challenger (Clay) and the Semi-Final at Los Cabos (Hard).

He’s a solid favourite in our book, and the 8/11 in a couple of places should be snapped up. If it goes, UniBet also offer 7/10.

1.1pt Dzhumhur to beat Cuevas at 8/11

For an odds-against poke, you could do worse than back Blaz Kavcic to beat a decline Mikhail Youzhny. The Russian has a 3-0 head to head advantage, but none of those wins have been straight forward, and the gap in class between these players has never been smaller.

Youzhny has certainly slowed down – he is 17-32 against Top 100 players since the start of 2016, while Kavcic is 3-1. Much less experienced of course, but it looks about the time that these two will switch positions in the world order, and we’ll suggest this is the last time you get the Slovakian at odds-against in this match up – he’s 27/20 with the Betfair Sportsbook.

Youzhny was forced to qualify for recent tournaments in Montreal and Cincinnati, and actually failed to succeed for the Rogers Cup – a Lucky Loser spot helped him enjoy a thumping from Borna Coric. He’s only actually won three matches since Wimbledon, and they all came over three sets agains Lloyd Harris, Radu Albot and Ernests Gulbis.

Kavcic has been down in the challengers of course, winning events in July and August, so while he comes here a little less than tested, his confidence should be high. We make him favourite, so get aboard the underdog in this one is the advice.

2pts Kavcic to beat Youzhny at 27/20

Finally, try Andrey Rublev when he meet’s the UK’s own K Aljaz Bedene. Just five places separate the pair in the world rankings at present and we shouldn’t expect anyone to especially dominate. Bedene won their last meeting earlier in the year, but it is Rublev who has the most opportunity to have improved from that clash 6 months ago.

Bedene has a weaker overall record over the last two years against Top 100 players, and a weaker surface record. He’s also well known as a clay man. He is 26-29 v top 100 overall, and 9-11 on hard courts. Rublev is a more appealing 29-22 and 12-12 on Hard.

Factor in a less-than-ideal single Hard Court match in preparation for this for Bedene and we arrive at a small bet on Rublev at 13/10.

1pt Rublev to beat Bedene at 13/10

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