US Open Thursday (Day 4)

Wednesday began very badly and got better. Karlovic beat Blake, Wawrinka beat Stepanek, and Murray/Llodra had under 29.5 games (27) so they were all winners for the blog. Soeda lost to Baghdatis - Marcos looked excellent, no complaints there, but then its gets horrible. Melzer served for the first set at 5-3 v Donskoy, got broken, lost the set 7-5 and from there the match in straight sets. There is no getting my head around that one. Inexplicable. The one that hurt the most though was Benoit Paire, who was twice up a break in the fifth set and indeed served for the match at 5-4, and went 30-0 up in that game, trading @ 1.01 before losing it in  tie-break. It's not the first time he has let me down, or Melzer come to think of it, and I will avoid both in future. Here are Thursday's picks:

Haider-Maurer v Kukushkin: I think Kukushkin will win this one. He is 1/2 and I think a far more complete player than the Austrian who is probably more at home on a clay court. Kukushkin can be so dangerous and should have no problems here

Tomic v Evans: Same as the above, Tomic will have learned his lesson from round 1 and will have too much here for a gallant Dan Evans. Class should come through in this one. Take Tomic to win @ 2/5

Nadal v Dutra Silva: this one to have less than 8.5 games in the first set 10/11. That means we have Nadal 6-0, 6-1, and 6-2 which I think covers all the likely outcomes. I think he will probably cover the handicap too which is 7/5 to beat him by 12 games or more (meaning we would need a 2,2, and 2 win) I'm not recommending the handicap win - just the first set one. Dutra Silva is useless.

Sela v Tipsarevic: Tipsarevic has been in bad form but I think he will still have too much for Dudi Sela whose best tennis is behind him. Sela is more at home on the Challenger scene these days and Tipsy should provide another winner for the day at about 1/2

Lopez v Klahn: Lopez wins this, no question. Only thing is you'll only get 1/3 for your money. If you don't mind backing short-odds winners, this one is it.

Enjoy the tennis, mostly short-price today but if they win, nobody will be complaining :)