Nicolas Almagro - Frank Dancevic

Third day of US Open Grand Slam is about to begin. Today I've chose a little more matches than yesterday and I hope profits will be enough good to us.  In very first clash we will meet two strong serving gentleman's. Canadian Dancevic poses and advantage of surface favour. But Spaniard Almagro in spite his favourite surface is clay he noticed much more success and in my eyes seems to be a little better player in aspects of style, technique, but still his concentration is a weak point. Not much big matches on Dancevic side lately and honestly I don't expect he will win this match but still hoping he will be to bite at least one set from Nicolas. In last two tours he had to face in early round Djokovic and Wawrinka. With the second he was able to bite a set, which means that his simple strong serve and attack tactic could bother many players. In Newport he reached semifinals where he lost to Prakash Amitraj 1:2. On hard he always played his best. On Grand Slams he seems to motivate much more. In Wimbledon he was able to beat Nalbandian, but to be honest David helped him a lot. He didn't beat Reynolds but still was able to bite a set from strong serving American. Frank is a warrior and US Open is a closest to him Grand Slam and I hope he won't miss a chance to show some decent tennis. Almagro poses a strong serve too, nice technique, but still this guy poses some problems with mentality. He face in long matches problems and I hope Dancevic will attack like he used to do for whole matches I saw with him. 4-5 sets should be here. Let's try...

Pick: Over 40.5 games at 1.85 with Unibet: 5/10

Jie Zheng - Anabel Medina Garrigues

From today's ladies draw I chose clash between Chinese Jie Zheng and Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues. Zheng is one of my favourite players in WTA. By years in doubles she learn well to use volley, game under the net and she sees a lot on court. Now she is in very good shape because of Olympic Games that just finished in her home country. Sadly Zheng had to leave the Olympic tour in third round - Dinara Safina was too strong for her. But I think good shape left and she will use it to achieve some nice result in US Open. She do not fear Grand Slams which she proved in Wimbledon reaching semi-final eliminating under her way many top players. Zheng poses great ability to move quick under the ball to hit very spicy in exchange. I think player like Medina, clear clay courters won't be able to be enough fast for such game style. Now after Olympic's pressure went off from Zheng and she can focus only on her good game. I have no doubt that she is still in good shape, enough good to win over Medina. Spaniard mostly achieve something on clay, on hard few weeks ago she achieved Portoroz final, but didn't beat too many hard opponents. In Olympic tour she lost 1:2 to Sybille Bammer, but Bammer poses a little different style than Zheng and to be honest she isn't in such good form lately. Here in US Open in first round she beat strong hitting Pironkova, but also here Pironkova lately just love to throw as many balls as she can out of court. Zheng in first round gave no chances to American Perry and I expect that also Spaniard won't be a problem for her. Zheng style should fit with Anabel and Zheng if sher will stay calm should win this match.

Pick: Zheng to win the match at 1.73 with BlueSQ: 4/10

Pick: Zheng to win 2:0 in sets at 2.75 with William Hill: 2/10

Chris Guccione - Jesse Levine

For late evening I chose a battle between young American Jesse Levine and a little older Australian Chris Guccione. First of all we have to notice that here we have huge difference in height of these players. Levine is only 175 cm heigh when Guccione is a 200 cm monster. 25 cm on fast hard surface is a big advantage and I think if Chris will be able to hold fine serving form he should win the match. If Australian will win first-second set by tie-break that should calm Levine and I don't think he will stand up after such hit. But still it could be a five setter or quick win for Levine, who plays at home. The think is we don't know how Guccione will serve today. In last tours we saw him he presented nice shape of his serve and I  hope he will show same here in US Open. In Beijing he didn't get a chance to play too much but it isn't a surprise that he isn't on such level like James Blake. In other tours on American hard he made a good impression. In Indianapolis he lost to Korean Jun, but in Cincinnati qualifications he took a revenge and smashed that player 2:0. In main event of Cincinatti he deafeat his today opponent Levine. I hope he will serve like in that match - 17 aces, only 3 chance for break for Levine, it was a really good match for Chris. With Verdasco he was playing also a very good game but in two tie-breaks Spaniard was a little better. New Haven is a strange tour, I really don't know is Chris catch a bad day in first round, because both, he and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez were playing weak game. I think it is all about that Guccione plays one match with awesome serve and in other he isn't able to hold that and without his serve to be honest he is a very weak player. If he will serve well today he meet big chances to advance, maybe even to win clearly. Jesse Levine just advanced from junior tennis into real pro-tennis. In this season he started to play in ATP main events but didn't achieved any big wins and when he was losing he was losing clearly without too much fight. Of course he was able to scare a little Rafa Nadal in Toronto, when he took 4-2 lead in first set, but I think it was a matter that Nadal underestimated him too much and of course after that current no. 1 won this set with 6-4 result. Levine with his last performances don't convince me. He reached quarter-finals of New Haven, but Garcia-Lopez who beat Guccione in this tour played awful and Darcis retired after two games only. In qualifications he lost to Bogomolov and entered to main draw luckily. In Toronto before Nadal he played to Polansky and this match was more similar to women's tennis. They weren't able to hold their serves and done a lot of unforced errors. Levine is a young player, not top, on quite similar level to Guccione. But on hard Chris poses big advantage of serve. Too fast surface for Levine, and home area don't help him if Guccione will put all his power into serve and hits. We'll see...

Pick: Guccione to win the match at 2.05 with Stan James: 3/10

Pick: Guccione to win 3:0 in sets at 6.50 with Stan James: 1/10

 

2 PICK LOST

3 PICK WON

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