U.S. Open ATP & WTA Preview 2015

US OPEN – 2015

WOMEN:

Favourites:

Serena Williams, Azarenka, Halep and Kvitova

In truth, there is only one real favourite for this year’s final and that is Serena. In fact her odds are under EVENS on the Outright Market @ the Betfair Exchange!
The next favourite is priced above 12 which is a massive difference!

If any player from this list has a chance to knock out Serena, my best bet would be Kvitova as she looked really sublime in her previous tournament at Connecticut.

PLEASE NOTE THAT MARIA SHARAPOVA HAS PULLED OUT OF US OPEN.

Decent Outsiders:

Three outsiders that I feel have some sort of a chance mainly because they are on the opposite side of Serena’s draw, are Muguruza, Bacsinszky and Kerber.
If I pick one amongst these, it would probably be the German Kerber who is a genuine hard court player and never goes down without a fight.

On Serena’s side of the draw, the best bets could be Aga Radwanska (priced around 60), Makarova (odds of 150) and Cibulkova (priced over 200!).
The reason why Aga is a great bet is because her game is mostly about defense which can frustrate a lot of players including Serena.
Makarova had a great US Open in 2014 only losing to Serena in the Semis. Worth noting also that the Russian beat Serena at the Australian Open – 2012 in 2 sets. Therefore she cannot be ignored easily.
My 6th sense says the player that could cause the most problems out of this list may indeed be Cibulkova because os the sheer aggressive nature of her Tennis.
Cibu played pretty well at the start of this year beating players like Azarenka at the Australian and losing only to the eventual winner at the Quarter Finals, Serena herself!

Prediction:

A lot of people think Serena should get this title wrapped up as this is her home tournament and more importantly, she is chasing the magical ‘Calender Slam’ to join an elite list of 5 players who have done it.

They were Don Budge and Rod Laver in Mens Tennis, and Maureen Connolly, Margaret Court and the most recent, Steffi Graf in 1988. Worth mentioning that Serena is also chasing Graf’s 22 Grandslam titles. Currently the American is on 21.

In my opinion, it is incredibly hard to side against Serena as the truth is, this has indeed been one of her best ever seasons with 48 wins and just 2 losses (and 3 withdrawals). That is an incredible 96% win record! If you are going for an Outright bet that you can be confident about, Serena Williams has to be it.

Serena Williams to win 2015 US Open to complete the Calendar Grandslam & tie Steffi Graff’s 22 Grandslams for my money!

MENS:

Favourites:

Unlike last year’s shock win for Cilic who was probably a 300/1 outsider, expect no such miracle this year!

I can confidently say, one of the following players will win this year’s US Open title.

They are:

Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Nishikori or Stan Wawrinka

The real question for this title is between Djokovic and Federer.
No doubt Federer is on the high after beating both Murray and Djoko at Cincinnati in one of the best performances I’ve seen by the great man. But you can never ignore Djoko as he has shown why he is the World Number 1 time after time, especially at big events most recently in Wimbledon.

While Andy Murray has had a great comeback after his Wimbledon loss beating Djokovic, I do wonder if he can keep on going. His main threat is from Wawrinka who is placed in the same section as the Scot. Still, a semi-final place looks promising.

Nishi was last year’s runner up. He is currently placed in the bottom half of Novak’s draw. A semi final encounter between those two will indeed be one to look out for.

Stan can never be ignored at the moment regardless of the tournament. He has consistently performed well against the top players, especially at the majors. With odds of close to 20, he is probably the best value on the outright market.

Decent Outsiders:

I am picking the following 3 players to be my best outsider tips.

Dimitrov, Dolgopolov and Isner.

The best pick here would be Dimitrov (currently priced around 100 on the outrights), considering his main rival could be Nishikori, someone I believe he can beat if he plays at his best.

Dolgopolov is another good bet who possesses the weapons to knock out big seeds. Sadly for him, his encounter with Nishikori is likely to be very early in the tournament.

The simple reason for backing Isner is that serves will be crucial throughout this tournament. If John can take all his matches to tie-breaks and hopefully steal a few of them, he may have a chance. However, it’s understandable that odds on him are close to 300 as he is in the same draw as Roger Federer.

I have ignored Nadal completely, as the Spaniard has struggled physically throughout this year!

Prediction:

The only player who can derail Djokovic’s route to the final is Nishikori or Dimitrov. However, on paper that does look improbable. So a Djokovic presence in the final is very possible here considering the World No.1 has reached all 3 finals in Grandslams this year, winning 2 of them.

However, if there is one solution to the Serbian puzzle, it is the Swiss way!
I genuinely believe Roger Federer will put on show one of his best ever performances at this year’s US Open. It’s not just that his form is great, truth is he genuinely feels pretty confident about his game.

I had predicted Roger to win this year’s Wimbledon and to be fair he actually played pretty well there. On the day, Djokovic was just the better player.
This time though, expect Roger to shine more brightly.

My winner for US Open 2015 – Roger Federer!

Thanks for reading!

Patrick Ross