Welcome to another U.S Open writeup as we discuss our favorite plays on the slate. We want to make note that the scoring is slightly different since women play 3 sets and men play 5 sets. Draftkings has tried to “nerf” the men’s scoring due to having more sets but we still like using them because women’s matches tend to be closer and have more double faults with less aces. The only women we are going to consider are ones that are going to flat out dominate the match, have high upside, or value plays. With that being said, let’s discuss our favorite plays in each tier. We’ll give you our favorite play in each range and you can use the projections to fill out the rest of your lineups. Good luck and we’ll be in discord available to answer any questions on any players you want to inquire about!
11k-10k Range
Coco Gauff – We absolutely love this matchup for Gauff which is why she is gaining a lot of ownership. Her opponent is not good at all and has simply got lucky drawing opponents just as poor as her making the matches a coin flip. The run ends here though as the speed of Gauff being able to go baseline to baseline and all around the court is going to give her various paths to winning easy points. We expect total domination in this match as her ability to return so well makes her an attractive spend up option.
Taylor Fritz – It has been smooth sailing for Fritz up to this point and we expect it to continue here in this matchup against Francisco Cerundolo. The Argentine doesn’t offer any significant advantages that can give Fritz any fits. We don’t believe Fritz has even reached his peak as he hasn’t grabbed any aces bonuses yet because he has been dominating the return games. No matter how you put it, we expect domination and another good scoring outing from the American.
Iga Swiatek – The girl from Poland is likely to dominate her matchup here against Bouzkova. The way to beat Swiatek is to be dominant with a serve and having power to counter her elite defense. Bouzkovs doesn’t have that so we expect ease in the return games to open up plenty of break point opportunities and hold her service games very easily as well.
9k-8k Range
Amanda Anisimova – There is a lot simply not going in favor of Potapova. The hard courts aren’t her best surface and she crumbles against top opposition. Anisimova has a fantastic serve that’ll help her hold serve and should have her fair share of break opportunities to dominate this matchup. The rankings don’t justify how wide we think the gap is between these two players.
Mirra Andreeva – Bartunkova loves to control rallies and Andreeva won’t let her do that. The best part of Andreeva’s game is that she loves to put pressure and dictate the matches. Bartkunova without rally control is a player without rhythm so this is a nightmare of a matchup for her.
Naomi Osaka – Osaka leads the head to head matchup 6-3 which is key because we have plenty of history to draw a conclusion. Osaka has a great serve and has won the last two meetings against Mertens. We expect history to repeat itself as she gets her third win against Mertens in a row.
Botic Van De Zandschulp – We are seeing a peak BVDZ and we expect his hot run to continue. When Van De Zandschulp is at his best, he can get in a lot of first serves, control rallies, and take aggressive chances to put pressure on return games. Bergs doesn’t have a massive advantage anywhere so we want to continue riding the hot hand with Van De Zandschulp.
Madison Keys – We expected Keys to bounce back and she somehow looked far worse against a worse opponent than the opening round. Yet, the resilience of Keys on the return games helped her survive once again. Madison Keys has simply lost control of her serve but that’s something we expect her to get back. The return game has been elite and if she returns to her normal ability to hold serve then she should have an easy time against Zheng.
7k-6k Range
Learner Tien – Tien makes a name for himself by extending rallies until his opponent makes an error. That’s one of the ways to stop Jakub Mensik who is very reliant on his serve and gets very uncomfortable in extended rallies. Mensik may be able to steal points and games with his serve but the defense of Tien will make it difficult to do that consistently.
Iva Jovic – She takes on a girl who she has a 2-0 lead against in head to head meetings. The reason she leads the head to head meetings is because Jovic knows how to take advantage of the slow serve of Eala. Jovic tends to take an aggressive approach and it forces Eala to make mistakes. There tends to be a lot of pressure on the Eala second serves and Jovic eats those up.
Alexander Blockx – He is a very talented serve bot and this is also a fade on Cabolli. We haven’t been impressed with Cabolli and now he’s taking on the best server he’s faced in awhile. Cobolli has struggled against very underwhelming opponents so we expect him to crumble at his first taste of good competition.
Arthur Gea – We took Gea last time out because of his aggressive playstyle and it crumbled Savajda as expected. We don’t expect it to crumble Zheng but we love taking value plays who are aggressive and take initiative to steal points on return games. Gea has held serve well so we are hoping he can find break opportunities again with his aggressive play.
Benjamin Bonzi – We were extremely impressed with Bonzi as he dismantled Buse to get his revenge from a few weeks ago. Now he takes on Karen Khachanov who has been in terrible form. We don’t put much weight on Khachonov beating an injured and overrated FAA and feel like Bonzi will give him problems here.
Dane Sweeny – We don’t believe the odds should be as wide as they are. Sweeny is a challenger level player but he has played a fantastic tournament. He disposed of Musetti rather easily and now has a step down in competition going against Darderi. This is also a leverage play because people expect Darderi to dominate given the gap in rankings. Sweeny has a chance here because Darderi is a poor server and got broken eight times in his last matchup. This is good value with a realistic chance to win in Dane Sweeny.
Alejandro Tabilo – It’s never fun going against the number one seed but Zverev has been pushed to five sets in back to back rounds now against mediocre competition. The fatigue could be a factor here and Tabilo is super cheap to take the shot with.
Yuliaa Starodubtseva – This is more so a play against Rybakina as she has been dealing with injuries and has played an exhausting schedule. It’s bound to catch up to her at some point so it’s worth the shot to use Starodubtseva as a punt play.