The tennis action continues Tuesday in New York with the final day of the first round of matches. Once again, DraftKings headlines a large contest with their $20 Rally Point Special and a $50k top payout. Entry deadline is at 11 a.m. EST.
Check out our DFS Tennis Optimizer for full projections.
Top Tier
Jessica Pegula ($10,000) over Camila Giorgi
The New York native is one of the top handful of favorites to take home the title and with good reason - she's coming off her best performance at this event last year, and she took down Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek en route to winning in Canada. She's won all three of her meetings against Giorgi, and this is Giorgi's only grand slam in which she has a losing record (7-11). She also has just one main draw win since Wimbledon.
John Isner ($9,400) over Facundo Diaz Acosta
Isner is playing his final professional tournament following a 16-year career and the draw did him a favor in the first round with Diaz Acosta, who has only made one grand slam appearance in which he lost in the first round. He's primarily a challenger level player and taking out Isner on this stage would be a tall task. Although he may be retiring, Isner's form is still solid as he made the semis in Newport and beat Tommy Paul along the way.
Honorable Mention: Daniil Medvedev ($11,200) over Attila Balazs, Cameron Norrie ($9,900) over Alexander Shevchenko
Middle Tier
Matteo Berrettini ($8,500) over Ugo Humbert
Berrettini has saved some of his best tennis for the bright lights of NYC, with his surprising semifinal run in 2019 and back-to-back trips to the quarters. Humbert on the other hand, has just a 2-5 record at the U.S. Open and 11-19 in majors overall. Berrettini is the favorite here despite Humbert being seeded, which is usually a good angle for taking the favorite. I think Berrettini has too much firepower for Humbert and will put up points with aces, too.
Leylah Fernandez ($7,500) over Ekaterina Alexandrova
Fernandez had a magical run here two years ago, losing in the final, so she's clearly comfortable in New York and on hard courts. Although she hasn't been able to keep that momentum going since, she did have a nice win over Beatriz Haddad Maia in Canada a few weeks ago. Meanwhile, Alexandrova has a losing grand slam record and has never made it past the second round over six appearances at the U.S. Open.
Honorable Mention: Borna Coric ($9,000) over Sebastian Baez, Tallon Griekspoor ($8,200) over Arthur Fils
Value Tier
Luca Van Assche ($6,000) over Nicolas Jarry
Someone you should get to know is 19-year-old Frenchman Van Assche, who is a former junior grand slam champion and is rising up the ranks. He took down Alejandro Davidovich Fokina last month, and we know how good of a summer he's had. Jarry's had a bit of a career resurgence this year, but he's much better on clay. He only went 1-1 during the U.S. hardcourts this summer, most recently retiring in Cincinnati due to the birth of his son.
Christopher O'Connell ($5,600) over Max Purcell
A matchup between a couple of Australians, Purcell has some buzz around him entering the week after making the quarters in Cincinnati. There's reason to be cautious about him, however, given that he has a 1-6 career grand slam record and didn't make it out of qualifying here last year. The 29-year-old O'Connell is a bit of a late bloomer that reached a new career-high ranking last month and has a win over Alexander Zverev this spring.
Honorable Mention: Arthur Rinderknech ($6,400) over Diego Schwartzman, Vera Zvonareva ($6,100) over Yanina Wickmayer
