Ricky Dimon
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The U.S. Open – the tennis season’s fourth and final Grand Slam – is underway, and first-round competition will conclude on Tuesday. Among those taking the court are Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek. Let’s look at the US Open best bets to make on the Day 2 schedule, and also be sure to check out my US Open men’s singles best bets and US Open women’s singles predictions.
Parlay: Borna Coric ML over Adrian Mannarino and Matteo Arnaldi ML over Zachary Svajda (-119)
Adrian Mannarino is simply an automatic fade these days. He is on a laughable 10-match losing streak and is a ridiculous 1-17 in his last 18 matches heading into the U.S. Open. The veteran left-hander has won just a single match since early March and has not won since the grass-court swing in ‘s-Hertogenbosch in early June. Now he faces Borna Coric, who is a former U.S. Open quarterfinalist (2020) and won the Cincinnati Masters in 2022. It’s fair to say that this is the Croat’s favorite time of year.
The other match in this US Open parlay should be similarly lopsided. Matteo Arnaldi has been playing great tennis since last summer when he made a fourth-round run at Flushing Meadows before falling to Carlos Alcaraz. Arnaldi’s hard-court prowess was on display once again with a recent semifinal run at the Montreal Masters. Meanwhile, Zachary Svajda is 5-13 all-time on the main tour.
Cristina Bucsa -2.5 games over Sara Errani (-122)
Although not quite to the same extent as Mannarino, Sara Errani is an auto fade right now – at least when she plays on anything other than clay. On hard courts, she is close to hopeless. The 37-year-old has not won a match of any kind in more than 2 months (June 22, to be exact) and heads into New York City on a 5-match losing streak. Errani’s last 7 set scores – all in her opponents’ favor – are…wait for it…6-1, 6-3, 6-2, 6-0, 6-0, 6-3 and 6-0. There isn’t anything that needs to be said about Cristina Bucsa. The Spaniard may not be in stellar form either, but she has been dominating the doubles court this summer, which should at least give her some confidence. Even a decent performance by Bucsa should be more than enough to dispose of Errani with ease.
Christopher O’Connell +1.5 sets vs Nicolas Jarry (-118)
Nicolas Jarry was on fire earlier this year, but that was when he played on his beloved clay courts. Not too surprisingly, the Chilean promptly imploded once the tour moved to grass and hard courts. He has not won a match since the Rome semifinals on May 17. That’s right; it has been more than 3 months since he has picked up a victory. Jarry is on a 6-match losing streak going into the U.S. Open, where he has won only 3 main-draw matches all-time in 6 previous trips to the event. Christopher O’Connell is much more comfortable on hard courts than his opponent. The Australian played well last year in NYC, defeating Max Purcell before succumbing to eventual runner-up Daniil Medvedev in 4 sets. Don’t be surprised if O’Connell wins this one outright, but at the very least he should take it to 5 sets.
