Betway’s global tennis ambassador makes his predictions for the men’s and women’s singles at the US Open, along with his thoughts on Jannik Sinner and Emma Raducanu.
Off-court revelations likely to take toll on Sinner
It’s not often that someone who’s No. 1 in the world and a Grand Slam champion has something completely new to deal with. Jannik Sinner is receiving all the attention due to his doping case is and constantly having to defend himself, which has to take a toll. He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy that is thirsty for attention, he seems pretty reserved, so anyone who says that they are certain how it’s going to affect him, we’re just guessing.
I don’t think it can have a positive effect. He’s not like Novak [Djokovic], who has this superhuman power to lean into friction and maybe even use the public-facing side of it to his benefit. It’s a New York crowd, if it’s 10:30pm, someone’s probably going to have a couple of beers and is going to say something. Then, obviously, that’s for public consumption, and there’s going to be reaction. It has to have some effect. We’ll just see how good he is at compartmentalising this specific issue.
Sinner’s draw is OK but he’ll have lots of questions to answer
I think Sinner will be OK in the first couple of rounds, it’s just a matter of whether he can get his feet into the tournament. I don’t suspect that he’s going to come out and completely forget how to play tennis. What we have to watch is if there’s a cumulative effect, because he’s earned the attention to be questioned. It’s not as if we’re digging for something that’s not there. He has to answer every question, because he and/or his team made gross mistakes.
As he gets to the Round of 16 or the quarter-finals, every single time he goes into press, he’s going to get asked the same questions. For me, it’s less about tennis right now, it’s just about staying the course, keeping calm and trying to find a cadence that feels somewhat normal by the time he gets to the latter rounds of the tournament.
Djokovic is my pick for the men’s title
I don’t know if Novak will be exhausted from the summer – he obviously played deep at Wimbledon and he played unbelievably. I saw him this week in the locker room and told him I was absolutely blown away by his performance at the Olympics.
We get lazy with cliches like “he willed himself to victory”, or “he turns it on when it counts”. A lot of times, I think that’s just a lazy way of expressing a narrative, but I think that he absolutely willed himself to that win, and called the shot eight months ago. Going into that event, he hadn’t won a title and hadn’t beaten a top 10 player this year. It’s just crazy, and it reeks of greatness.
I think he’ll have momentum on his side. I don’t think he’s going to be feel like he’s searching for a solution to the season anymore. He’s the favourite in the tennis betting and he is my choice to win the tournament.
New York crowd will cheer on Novak
I think Novak is in that phase where, as a tennis fan, even if someone else was your favourite for a decade, you have to appreciate greatness in real time. He is rightfully living in that moment and it’s well-deserved.
I wouldn’t put much stock in the few boos he got in Paris. I think the boos come harder and faster there – you can’t question a call or circle a mark without getting booed. I actually feel like Novak has the ability to turn boos into gasoline more than any athlete I’ve ever seen, so I’m not too worried for him about it.
Alcaraz is already over his Olympic hangover
It’s tough to be too upset when you spent your summer winning the French Open and Wimbledon. I think we saw a hangover for Carlos Alcaraz from losing in the Olympic final as he went on to lose in the first round in Cincinnati, but I think it was better for him to get that loss out of his system. He did the same thing after Roland Garros, losing quickly to Jack Draper at Queen’s, and maybe that was the shock to the system that he needed. I had a quick chat with his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, a couple days ago, and I don’t think there’s going to be a hangover. It’s weird to say about someone so young, but he’s such a pro and has seen so many different circumstances, especially in an extended format. With three out of five sets, you have a lot less surprises in an extended format.
It feels like an American is due a run
Outside of the top three, I don’t think anyone wanted to see Matteo Berrettini near their name, so his meeting with Taylor Fritz in the second round is going to be a popcorn match. It’s one of those where the person you pick to win it could potentially make a semi.
It feels like there will be a run by an American. They’re all kind of bunched up between 10 and 16. With the guys who have played well in the first half of the year with Tommy Paul, Fritz and – to a lesser extent – Ben Shelton, it kind of flipped in the summer where TP took a couple of early-round losses, and Seb Korda and Francis Tiafoe corrected course. It’s going to be exciting. I love what I’m seeing with them pushing each other. All I want for those guys is a healthy jealousy, which I think is there, so it will be great to watch who will make the move in the tournament
Sabalenka is the one to beat in the women’s singles
I think Aryna Sabalenka is the favourite on this surface. I picked her at Wimbledon, and then as soon as I talked about it, she pulled out three hours later. I don’t think it was coincidental that the two who really played well in Cincinnati – Sabalenka and Sinner – were the two who didn’t play the Olympics and had that extra week of focus and preparation. I think she’s a significant favourite.
Gauff has to treat the tournament as two separate weeks
I haven’t talked to Brad Gilbert – Coco Gauff’s coach – in a month now, but I’ve got to think they’re realists. They’re searching for something, but they don’t have to win the tournament on the first Monday. Let’s find some form, let’s grind out a couple of matches and let’s see if that turns into the second week. The great players, which I consider Coco to be, are judged against shadows a lot of the time. I don’t know how she’s going to feel going back to a place where she’s had such success.
There’s no doubt that she’s searching for her best level, and maybe has been for a couple of months, but, Coco is probably the best in the world at not having her best stuff and still finding a way. It’s just going to be a matter of whether she can survive the first week. I think she’s going to have to play almost two different tournaments – win the first week and then reassess.
Pegula can have a big run
Jess Pegula has had a rough, unpredictable year. I was talking with her a bunch earlier in the year, when she was making some big career decisions, and I just feel like her year has been like when you’re driving down a road and you have to go over a bunch of speed bumps. There’s still forward momentum, but you keep getting interrupted and you’re certainly not hitting top speed.
I think she hit top speed post-Olympics. She’s right there now. She has this thing where she hasn’t been past the quarters of a slam, even though her career credentials outside of that are completely outsized, compared to other people who have, but I love what I’ve seen from her. If you give her a quick hardcourt where she can hit that flat ball and get it through the middle of the court, she’ll be dangerous for sure.
Hard to tell what Raducanu’s capable of
Emma Raducanu plays another former grand slam winner, Sofia Kenin, to then play Pegula in the second round, so it’s challenging. I really am a fan of Emma. I think some of the criticism levied at her was a little ridiculous – you can’t punish her for a great result.
At Roland-Garros, she had to play qualifiers, and she didn’t play. She would have had to play quailifiers at the WTA 1000s, and she didn’t play. So there seems to be a trend that I don’t think is coincidental, and I don’t like it. She played well in Washington, won some good matches and did the same at Wimbledon. I would have liked to have seen her continue that.
If someone like Naomi Osaka is happy to enter qualifiers in Cincinnati, I think there’s a lot of value in those matches. But who am I? She doesn’t need me to agree with her, for sure, but we’ll see. There’s a lifetime between D.C. and the main draw at the US Open. If I was in her corner, I probably wouldn’t have suggested that, but she’s done things her way and is pretty unapologetic about it. She’s had a hell of a career already.
I’m pulling for Collins to make a big run in her final US Open
I think Danielle Collins has really helped knock the door down, along with Emma Navarro and others, that you can go to college. When I played – with the exception of James Blake, who was able to get in the top five – you looked at the college players and I didn’t feel like they were going to take my lunch. Now it’s like college players can win Masters 1000s and can make grand slam finals.
I’m a big fan of Danielle. I can relate to her, because her emotions can get the best of her sometimes, like mine could, but she’s a fierce competitor. I would love for her to make a run, just because I think it’s a great story. It’s a strange thing to say you’re going to retire and then play the best tennis of your career. It’s not something that we see very often, so it would be really fun if she could make a run here at her last Open.