US Open Tuesday (Day 2)

So we are on the way to a 5 from 6 start on day 1 with Serra coming up with a set v Lopez, Tomic, Robredo, Kukushkin all winning, and Giraldo on his way to a win before rain halted play overnight. The only loss was Verdasco and that was in five sets. So a decent start and here are Tuesday's picks:

Sock v Petzschner: I think Petzschner has a great chance here and certainly a better chance than the 6/4 odds suggest. He has come through qualifying easily, looks in decent form, and meets a player who has lost 6 of his last 8 matches including his last 3 in a row. I like Petzschner to progress, the wily auld vet that he is.

Young v Klizan: Donald Young is a joke of a player and while Klizan's form has been very patchy, he is defending a couple of points here so needs a good showing. I think 4/5 is a fantastic price for the Slovak

Istomin v Almagro: This match is an interesting one. On paper, Almagro should win. However, Istomin's leads the head to head 2-0 (both in 2010), and has racked up a few decent wins on hard courts already this summer, over the likes of Yen-Hsun Lu and Janko Tipsarevic. Almagro hasn't won a hard court match this summer and so I think the 2/1 on offer for the hard-hitting Uzbek is too generous. Hard match to call but Istomin has more than a 33% chance to win it as the odds suggest so that's why I'm backing it.

Chardy v Stakhovsky: As opposed to calling a winner in this one, my recommendation is for there to be a tie break at a very generous 8/13 with some of the leading bookmakers. Great price.

Kohlschreiber v Altamirano: This could be an absolute rout. Kohlschreiber goes off the 1/200 fav with most bookies against a player who won his wildcard here and doesn't even have an ATP ranking. He is 17 years old and is going to take a beating. The handicap is 11.5 games and Kohlschreiber is 1/2 to beat that. However Kohlschreiber to have under 18.5 games can be had @ 1/2 with one BetVictor, which seems enormous. All Kohlschreiber needs to do for the bet to be successful is to win in straight sets 6-*, 6-*, 6-*, i.e. no sets going 7-5 or 7-6. Seems quite likely.

Enjoy Teusday's action. Over and out :)