Alex De Minaur vs Andrea Guerrieri Expert Tips and Best Bets | September 1

The first round of the US Open has reached its end, with undoubtedly the biggest story to come out of it being the first round exit of Novak Djokovic – his first since 2006. With the field now halved, spots in the final 32 are already up for grabs, and Tuesday will see a host of players look to book their spots in the third round. Below, we take a look at three of the best bets for the day’s action at Flushing Meadows.

Alex de Minaur vs Andrea Guerrieri: De Minaur to win in straight sets | $1.37 with Betista

A short odds tip to start, but one which it’s tough to imagine not getting up. De Minaur has been a top 10 player for a few years now, but while he doesn’t really have the ability to match it with the absolute top tier of players, he is as consistent as anyone and rarely struggles to breeze through the early rounds – as evidenced by the fact that in his last 12 Grand Slams, he’s been eliminated in the quarter-finals 6 times, the fourth round 3 times and the third round 2 times. Guerrieri is exactly the kind of player he will feast against; the 27-year-old Italian went through the qualifiers to earn his spot at this tournament, marking his first ever appearance in the main draw of a Grand Slam. A great outcome for him, but up against a top-10 player he will likely be well and truly out of his depth. Even at relatively short odds with betting sites, this is a solid anchor to start the day.

Jesper De Jong vs Francesco Passaro: De Jong to win | $1.71 with Zoccer

Neither of these players have had a great deal of success at Grand Slams in their respective careers, but De Jong has taken a big step forward in recent times. He enjoyed a career-best fourth round finish at the French Open earlier in the year before backing that up with a first round win at Wimbledon – after which he was outclassed by the seeded Fonseca. He’s now cracked the top 100 in the world and will be backing himself to pick up another first round win against Passaro, who has only broken through to the main draw of three Grand Slams prior to this despite plenty of years trying, and has only ever won a solitary match at one of them. There is a decent gap between these two at this stage of their respective careers, and De Jong should really be a heavier favourite than what he is.

Tatjana Maria vs Jelena Ostapenko: Maria to win | $2.40 with BetandPlay

We end the day with a bet on an upset, with betting apps having installed Tatjana Maria as the fairly comfortable underdog to beat Ostapenko. In many ways that’s understandable; Ostapenko is a former Grand Slam winner while Maria has spent much of her career struggling to get past the first round and is now 39 years of age. But far from letting that slow her down, the German reached her career high singles ranking of 36 at nearly 38 years old, and in the past couple of months has beaten five players inside the top 50 – one of whom was Ostapenko herself. Ostapenko, meanwhile, comes into the tournament in some really indifferent form; she retired two tournaments ago in the first round but was down 0-6 0-4 against the world number 62 prior to doing so, while in her most recent tournament in Cincinannati she lost 1-6 3-6 to world number 41. Maria’s game has been proven to unsettle Ostapenko, and with their respective form vastly different heading into this one, the underdog can cause an upset in this one.