A poor first week has proven to be costly for the Tennis Picks in the final Grand Slam of 2023, but it might have been saved if not for the last couple of days when a number of selections have been wrong.
Ultimately it could have been a lot worse after the start made to the tournament as we get ready to see the men's Final played on Sunday to conclude the event.
After this, the next set of Tennis Picks potentially will arrive at the big events being played in China with the Tour set to return for the first time since the Covid pandemic. The Shanghai Masters is back on the schedule, and we have an ATP 500 event in Beijing and then later in Tokyo.
The WTA Tour will also be heading back to Asia following the US Open and there are some big 500 and 1000 level events to be played in China and Japan. Coco Gauff was crowned as a new Grand Slam Singles Champion, but the Tour needs to begin backing those players a little better and it is no surprise that there are talks to merge the ATP and WTA Tours together.
It says a lot about the WTA that they have only just announced that their Finals will be played in Cancun.
That is for another day and the purpose of this thread is to offer thoughts on the US Open Final to be played on Sunday.
You can read that below as Daniil Medvedev and Novak Djokovic meet for the second time in three years for the final Slam of the season.
Daniil Medvedev-Novak Djokovic over 38.5 games: The 'dream' Final hopes collapsed at the last moment when an impressive Daniil Medvedev beat Carlos Alcaraz in four sets in the last of the Semi Final matches played on Day 12 at the US Open. You can see that Medvedev, a former US Open Champion in his own right, had been seething quietly about suggestions that the top two players in the world were destined to meet in a second Grand Slam Final in a row.
Instead he threw a spanner into the works and Daniil Medvedev will want to prove he is not as far away from Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic as some would think.
Beating both players to win the US Open title would do that, but the World Number 3 will know that this is going to be another considerable challenge for him. Daniil Medvedev has beaten Novak Djokovic in the US Open Final in 2021, but that was a Djokovic that is not nearly as fresh as he is going to be feeling going into this Final.
Two years ago, Novak Djokovic had won three Grand Slam titles, but had looked exhausted at the end of the Tokyo Olympic Games as his bid for a Golden Slam faltered. While he did get to the Final in Flushing Meadows, Djokovic had been involved in a back and forth five set win in the Semi Final against Alexander Zverev and his emotions even got the better of him during the Final as he struggled to compete with the hitting of Medvedev.
This time Novak Djokovic is not playing for a bit of history in terms of a Calendar Grand Slam, but he is chasing a twenty-fourth Grand Slam title which would see him sit alongside Margaret Court on an all-time record number. However, he has looked much more comfortable with that pressure than he looked at times in the 2021 tournament and Novak Djokovic came through a sticky third set to beat Ben Shelton in straight sets in his own Semi Final.
While the numbers have not been dominant, Novak Djokovic has performed at a consistently good level throughout this tournament and it has felt he has been keeping something ready for the Final. He might even have expected that to be against his new rival, Alcaraz, but Djokovic will be glad of any extra energy he has in reserve against an opponent who will be happy to get involved in long, drawn out rallies.
Both of these players will know they need to serve well and that has been the case in recent meetings between them.
Daniil Medvedev won the most recent in the Dubai Final, but that snapped a run of four consecutive defeats to the impending World Number 1. All of those four defeats have followed the US Open Final win in 2021, but matches have been competitive and it has been one or two points that have swung sets and ultimately the outcome of those matches.
Novak Djokovic does lead the head to head at Grand Slam level, but Daniil Medvedev is arguably at his best at the US Open of the four Slams and he is a player that will have a lot of belief in his own tennis.
Two years the Final ended in straight sets, but the level of both of these players suggest we may need at least four sets to separate them in this one and that should see them getting very close to covering this total games line. While the last two matches played in 2023 have both ended in straight sets win, one each for Medvedev and Djokovic, the previous three had all needed the full three sets to separate the players and this is a match that could end up having four pretty long sets at the least.
MY PICK: Daniil Medvedev-Novak Djokovic Over 38.5 Games @ 1.80 Bet365 (2 Units)
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