Until the eve of the final Grand Slam of 2024.
The current men's World Number 1 may have won the last big title before the US Open begins, but that came just a day after it was announced that Jannik Sinner had lost his prize money and Ranking points in Indian Wells having failed a couple of drugs tests.
It had been a statement that made it clear that Sinner was not going to be facing a ban as his explanation for the reason for contamination was accepted by those leading the hearing, but it has led to a host of negative headlines for the Italian and the sport in general for the manner in which they handle these cases.
Many have been given an immediate suspension from the Tour while awaiting any hearing, while others have not been given what some players are calling a 'benefit of the doubt' that may not have applied if Sinner was not the World Number 1.
The Italian has responded by sacking the two members of his team that have taken responsibility for the contamination, which was very minor, but it has cast a cloud over one of the favourites as he looks to win a second Slam of the year.
Fans of the sport have to hope the tennis played at Flushing Meadows can turn the negative headlines into positives, although it is going to be hard to shake this story as long as Sinner is in the tournament. He has landed in the tougher half of the draw, but Sinner has shown his capabilities by winning the Australian Open and the success in Cincinnati in the last big tournament before the US Open will certainly have the Number 1 Seed believing he can add a second Major to his collection.
Statements from his main two rivals, Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz, may actually inspire Jannik Sinner a bit more if he truly believes he has done nothing wrong in relation to the adverse findings. The mental aspect of dealing with the questions and the funny looks from his peers might be the tougher challenge for the Italian on the court, but it is a wide open men's event this time around.
Both Djokovic and Alcaraz are previous Champions here and so will feel confident of winning- Djokovic has not always enjoyed playing in New York City, but is looking for his first Major of the season to add to the Olympic Gold he really wanted, while Alcaraz has won the last two Grand Slams and can try and ease his way into the tournament after a slight injury scare.
Daniil Medvedev is another who has won the title in Flushing Meadows, but who has landed in the tougher half of the draw and is still trying to the bridge the gap to the top three. However, the US Open has been regularly filled with a host of upsets and so this could be a good chance for Medvedev to come through under the rader.
The women's draw looks really hard to call again- outside of picking Iga Swiatek to win at Roland Garros, the Grand Slams continue to bring up some surprising winners. It looked like things had been settling down somewhat afer Coco Gauff won here last year and Aryna Sabalenka won in Melbourne again, but Barbora Krejcikova won at Wimbledon and Qinwen Zheng took home the Gold Medal in Paris, which suggests another big priced, surprising Champion could be found.
Elena Rybakina's split with her Coach and some injury worries makes it hard to believe in her, while Gauff and Swiatek have not been in the best of form.
Perhaps that leaves the door open for Aryna Sabalenka, but she has some mental demons to exorcise in New York City where she has suffered some close, excruciating defeats having come within touching distance of winning the Grand Slam.
It has been a tough season overall for the Tennis Picks and that is largely down to the historically poor Australian Open performance. A much better return was produced from the French Open, but the Paris Olympics were not as strong as hoped and so there will be some things to learn at the end of the 2024 season to ensure a much better Melbourne return in January.
Hopefully that is behind a couple of strong events at the US Open and when the Tour Finals roll around in October/November, and a solid first week will be needed to lay a good foundation for success as it all serves up on Day 1 on Monday.
Andrey Rublev - 6.5 games v Thiago Seyboth Wild: He remains a solid member of the top ten in the World Rankings and it has been an effective twelve months for Andrey Rublev as he prepares for another return to New York City for the US Open. This has been his most productive of Grand Slams in his career and Rublev has reached the Quarter Final in three of his last four appearances in the draw.
One disappointment for the World Number 6 is that he has yet to break through the 'glass ceiling' and reach the Semi Final of a Major for the first time.
In the main it has been a disappointing Grand Slam season for Andrey Rublev who had reached the Quarter Final in five of six Slams played culminating at the Australian Open in January. Since then he has suffered a Third Round exit at the French Open and a First Round exit at Wimbledon, while there is little doubt that Rublev has to improve on the mental side of the sport if he is going to build on the solid foundations he has already laid in his career.
Andrey Rublev would be the first to admit that, and has shown willingness to improve his on-court meltdowns, while he reached the Canadian Masters Final earlier this month. Overall his performances on the hard courts have been impressive in 2024, and Rublev will be well aware he needs to be at his best right from the opening match.
He faces Thiago Seyboth Wild in the First Round and the Brazilian reached his career best World Ranking mark in May. Limited hard court preparation has been made for the US Open by a player who is most comfortable on the clay courts, but Seyboth Wild did push Andrey Rublev all the way in a five set loss at the Australian Open earlier this year.
It was a hugely frustrating match for Rublev, who dominated the numbers but was effectively punished for playing the Break Points really poorly. While allowing Thiago Seyboth Wild to convert in 4/8 attempts, Andrey Rublev was just 4/23 on Break Points fashioned of his own and that is unlikely to be repeated.
This does give Andrey Rublev an edge and he should be a bit more focused knowing how tough things got, despite winning the first two sets when these two met in Melbourne.
Thiago Seyboth Wild is capable of getting some serious juice out of his serve on the hard courts, but his return game is much weaker than when playing on his favoured clay courts. In the main, Andrey Rublev has been an effective return player on this surface, even if his numbers are down on previous years, and the top ten Ranked player should be one that is focused enough to avoid the drama of the Australian Open.
You don't want to dismiss any player that holds a win over Taylor Fritz on the hard courts in 2024, but Thiago Seyboth Wild has only broken in 14% of return games played against top 50 Ranked players on this surface this season. As long as Andrey Rublev is not as wasteful as he can be on Break Points, he should have enough chances to win and cover this handicap mark set for the match.
Alexander Zverev - 7.5 games v Maximilian Marterer: The closest Alexander Zverev has come to winning a Grand Slam title has been at the US Open in 2020 when he actually served for the match before losing to Dominic Thiem. He had a 2-0 lead in sets that day and has only reached one more Slam Final since, albeit earlier this year at the French Open.
It has been a season of nearly moments for Alexander Zverev in a lot of respects- off court issues have finally been put to rest, but the defeats snatched from the jaws of victory in big matches will be tough to ignore if things get tight again.
He had a 2-0 lead over Daniil Medvedev in the Australian Open Semi Final before losing that match, then led 2-1 against Carlos Alcaraz in the French Open Final before falling away in that match too. At Wimbledon, Alexander Zverev was in a familiar 2-0 lead again, but this time he was beaten in the Fourth Round by Taylor Fritz and these kinds of defeats are difficult to shake off.
Another Quarter Final defeat ended his time at the Paris Olympics, but Zverev has played well in the two hard court Masters events run this month and that will give him confidence. He will avoid some of the top players in the tournament by being in the 'weaker half' and that should also mean the World Number 4 has time to work his way into the tournament.
He faces a compatriot in the First Round and one who is benefiting from a place in the main draw as a Lucky Loser- Maximilian Marterer was beaten by Mitchell Krueger in the final Round of Qualifying last week, but will have a chance to make amends by upsetting his countryman.
It is a big ask for the World Number 101 who had not played any hard court tournaments before the US Open Qualifying begun, and a 4-9 record on the surface is not exactly encouraging. Maximilian Marterer is a lefty though and that can be problematic, especially on a surface where big, accurate serving can make such a difference.
However, Marterer has only won 59% of his service points played on the hard courts, which suggests he is not making the best use out of that shot. That number drops to 57% when only considering matches played against top 100 Ranked opponents on the hard courts, while the record drops to 1-4.
Most troubling for Max Marterer has been the inability to really trouble opponents with his return game and now he faces a huge server in Alexander Zverev. Their previous match on a clay court in Hamburg ended in a routine win for the latter last year and this should be pretty comfortable all things considered.
The line is not an easy one to deal with on a hard court, but the expectation is that Alexander Zverev can wear down his compatriot and roll through a set and a half that gives him every chance of pulling clear of the number set.
Gael Monfils - 6.5 games v Diego Schwartzman: Two veterans of the Tour meet in the First Round at the US Open and both Gael Monfils and Diego Schwartzman will be well aware that their best days are probably behind them.
Credit has to be given to Gael Monfils for still being an effective player on the Tour with his place in the top 50 of the World Rankings and, at his best, he is still capable of beating the top names on the Tour. That was proven in his win over Carlos Alcaraz in Cincinnati a couple of weeks ago, although the consistency is no longer as strong as it once was and Monfils was beaten in the next Round by Holger Rune.
Over the years, Gael Monfils has proven to be an all-court player and he has reached the Quarter Final three times and the Semi Final once previously at the US Open. His last big run at a Major was at the Australian Open when reaching the Quarter Final in 2022, although that is only one of two occasions he has reached that Round in a Grand Slam since his 2016 US Open run to the final four.
Gael Monfils continues to be an effective player on the hard courts and his serve remains crucial to his ambitions of having one more big Grand Slam run. The returning numbers have perhaps shown a little decline in his level, and that has been the case even when Monfils has faced some of the players lower down the World Rankings.
He also has a losing record overall against Diego Schwartzman and a losing record on the hard courts, although these two players are facing off for the first time since the Autumn of 2021.
Diego Schwartzman won the last two matches against the Frenchman, but he was also the World Number 16 back in 2021 and things have changed dramatically for a player that has gotten the most out of every bit of talent he has possessed. These days Schwartzman is not even Ranked inside the top 200 as a loss of form and injury hit him hard, but three Qualifying wins to enter the main US Open draw may have given him a jolt of confidence to take into the match.
Prior to those three wins last week, Diego Schwartzman had a 3-6 record on the hard courts in 2024 and his numbers have been declining a little further in each of the last three seasons. That has contributed to the slump in the World Rankings and his hard court record against top 100 Ranked players is just 18-28 since the beginning of the 2022 season.
You know you will get everything from Diego Schwartzman and it would not be a massive surprise if he wins a set against Gael Monfils, but the serve is vulnerable and that could see the latter end up taking control of the match. There is no doubt that this is another awkward looking handicap mark, especially if Gael Monfils is distracted by the win-loss record against the opponent, but you have to believe that the difference in levels that these two players have been operating at will see the cream rise to the top.
Covering will not be easy, but Monfils has been serving effectively enough to believe any set dropped will not be by a wide margin. Instead, he may be the one to produce a 6-1/6-2 kind of scoreline at least once in this match and that should give Gael Monfils every chance to pull clear of the line set.
Barbora Krejcikova - 5.5 games v Marina Bassols Ribera: Any player that has won three Qualifying matches without dropping a set will be dangerous in the early part of a Grand Slam tournament. Credit has to be given to Marina Bassols Ribera, the World Number 115, for making her way into the US Open draw and she has been rewarded with a match against a top ten Seed.
And not just any top ten Seed, but the Wimbledon Champion.
There is no doubt that a target will be on the back of Barbora Krejcikova after surprisingly winning her second Singles Grand Slam title last month, but she did handle the new found fame when winning in Paris back in 2021. Strong results were produced and there is a calmness about Krejcikova that suggests she can handle the situation well enough.
A lack of hard court action in preparation for the US Open is a concern, but Barbora Krejcikova did reach the Australian Open Quarter Final earlier this year and has largely blamed injury for her lack of high-profile success over the last couple of years. She is a solid hard court player, but facing a Qualifier means little time to get into the rhythm needed.
Marina Bassols Ribera has yet to crack the top 100 in her career, and the Spaniard has been a solid if unspectacular player on the Tour. At 24 years old, Bassols Ribera will be looking to step up her career and she was at a career high mark earlier in the year, while the wins to earn a place in the main draw will have given her a boost.
Like her opponent, Marina Bassols Ribera has not played a lot of hard court tennis prior to the final Grand Slam of the season beginning. In matches against top 100 Ranked players on this surface, Bassols Ribera has had a tough time during her career and she is just 0-3 in those matches in 2024.
The serve is vulnerable and Barbora Krejcikova can serve well enough to contain the threat that Marina Bassols Ribera can bring to the court. The first set should be competitive as Krejcikova gets going, but she should have the qualities to break down this opponent and eventually pull clear of this spread set.
MY PICKS: Andrey Rublev - 6.5 Games @ 1.72 Bet365 (2 Units)
Alexander Zverev - 7.5 Games @ 1.83 Bet365 (2 Units)
Gael Monfils - 6.5 Games @ 2.00 Paddy Power (2 Units)
Barbora Krejcikova - 5.5 Games @ 1.90 Bet Victor (2 Units)
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