oddschecker expert Ross Whent gives his predictions for the US Open.
US Open - Winner
This year’s US Open looks to be one of the most open Grand Slam tournaments in recent history. Novak Djokovic is the obvious absentee, while Alexander Zverev has failed to recover from injury to compete at Flushing Meadows.
That opens the door of opportunity to Rafael Nadal to win the title, who is recovering from an injury of his own that forced him out of Wimbledon at the semi-final stage.
Nadal winning both hard court slams in 2022 is not what many would have predicted but with Djokovic unable to compete that prospect looks increasingly likely, with Nadal potentially moving further ahead in the race for the most slam titles at 23.
The 36-year-old Spaniard has been given a comparatively favourable draw with potential meetings against Cameron Norris and Carlos Alcaraz in the quarter-final and semi-final stages respectively. His record at winning slams following an injury is very good so if he can make it past the early rounds we should see a deep run in New York.
Defending champion Danniil Medvedev, on the other hand, has potential meetings with Nick Kyrgios, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Stefanos Tsitsipas on his route to the final.The Russian’s summer hard court form has also been shaky, having been beaten by Kyrgios in Montreal and Tsitsipas in Cincinnati.
For those reasons I think he is a poor value favourite for this tournament at 7/4 and it’s Nadal I’ll be backing against a soft field at 7/2.
