The 2022 tennis season will culminate over the next two weeks at the US Open, held annually at the Arthur Ashe Tennis Center in Flushing, Queens.
And for the first time in a long time, the men’s draw appears to be wide open, partly due to the fact that Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Sascha Zverev will not play, but also because none of the favorites arrive in Queens in top form.
Daniil Medvedev, the defending champion, is the betting favorite at +220, but he’s suffering a first-round loss to Nick Kyrgios in Montreal and a semi-final loss to Stefanos Tsitsipas in Cincinnati. Medvedev won on a hard court in Los Cabos before traveling to Canada, but he had a relatively easy draw in that tournament and losses to Kyrgios and Tsitsipas show that the gap between the favorite and the chasing group might not be all that wide.
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Second pick Rafa Nadal (+380) also has legitimate questions to answer after losing his Round 1 match in Cincinnati to eventual champions Borna Coric as a -600 favourite. This was Nadal’s first match since tearing his abdomen on June 27, so who knows where his game is now.
Nadal’s protégé Carlos Alcaraz is next on the board at +550 and looks like he’s well on his way to becoming the best player in the world, but he’s only 19 and has yet to make it to a semi-final at a Grand Slam made. Alcaraz is only 2-2 in the North American hard court season and is in a relatively deep quarter that also includes Hubert Hurkacz (+3600), Jannik Sinner (+1700), Borna Coric (+4200) and Marin Cilic (+5000). are ).
Nick Kyrgios rounds out the top-5 on the board at +900, but he has a complicated draw that starts with a first-round match against his best friend Thanasi Kokkinakis and also includes a possible round of 16 showdown with Medvedev.
2022 US Open Future Betting
It always helps to go into a tournament like the US Open with a strategy. The draw is incredibly important for planning your future bets and you should do your best to find players – especially those with higher odds – who have reasonable routes into the quarters and semis.
For the 2022 US Open, Quarters 2 and 4 seem most receptive to a Dark Horse winner, but we start in Quarter 3 with a talented player from Wroclaw, Poland.
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Hubert Hurkacz (+5000, BetMGM)
Hubert Hurkacz, number 10 in the world, tends towards one unmistakable victory in his career. The 1.80m tall Pole-native was a trendy choice on the grass at Wimbledon with much lower odds (he was around +1400) but a first-round exit burned his backers and he’s now at +5000 at BetMGM drifted off around +3500 on other sports bets (buy around!).
A powerful right-hander, Hurkacz’s game should be going well at the US Open, but that just hasn’t been the case so far as he hasn’t made it to the third round in four tries (he didn’t play in 2021).
Hurkacz’s record for all Grand Slams is a bit of a concern, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that he’s one of the game’s best power players in a tournament that should reward his preferred style of tennis. Hurkacz ranks in the ATP top-10 in ace percentage and hard-court percentage this season. So the numbers show he’s dangerous, even if his draw isn’t that good.
Maxime Cressy (+40000, BetRivers)
The entire tournament is open, but if you enjoy throwing outrageous longshots, this part of the draw is where you should do your shopping.
Stefanos Tsitsipas is the top seed in this section of the bracket and he has proven throughout his career that despite being an elite player, he can be undone in the blink of an eye. Due to his injury, Nadal is the most vulnerable top seedling but Tsitsipas is right there.
Maxime Cressy is one of the most unique players on the field thanks to his serve and volley style. If Cressy’s first serve works, he can be unplayable, turning any match into a coin toss. If he gets out of rhythm, he can lose to anyone. The good news is that the fast courts in Flushing should play straight into Cressy’s hands, as he’s ranked fourth in ATP hold percentage and sixth in ace percentage over the past 52 weeks on hard courts.
Tommy Paul Wins Quarter 2 (+3300, BetMGM)
A bet on Tommy Paul involves the tie. Another player in Stefano Tsitsipas’ quarters, the lightning-fast Paul, enjoyed some really good form during the North American hard court season and was rewarded with a 29th place finish at this year’s Open.
Paul’s route to the quarterfinals would likely see him face clay-court Bernabe Zapata Miralles, Sebastian Korda, Casper Ruud and Taylor Fritz. It’s no picnic, but totally doable for the New Jersey native and could open up further if there’s some chaos underneath him in the draw.
