Ricky Dimon
Second-round competition at the U.S. Open gets underway on Wednesday, when Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Taylor Fritz, Ben Shelton, Aryna Sabalenka and Jessica Pegula are among those taking the court. I am 5-1 over the past 2 days and would be 6-0 if Matteo Arnaldi had not squandered a 2-set lead on Tuesday, so let’s keep the momentum going!
Here are my favorite bets for Day 4 schedule.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova ML over Victoria Azarenka (-130)
Azarenka’s days of being a major title contender are long gone. The 36-year-old has done next to nothing at slams in 2025, losing in the Australian Open first round, the Roland Garros second round and the Wimbledon first round. Azarenka is 10-11 overall this season, including 5-6 on outdoor hard courts. She has been plagued by various injuries in recent seasons and took a medical timeout for an apparent hip problem during her 7-6(0), 6-3 first-round victory Hina Inoue. Meanwhile, Pavlyuchenkova advanced to the Wimbledon fourth round earlier this summer and is coming off an impressive victory over Dayana Yastremska in round 1 of the USO.
Benjamin Bonzi ML over Marcos Giron (+100)
Bonzi won the most memorable match of the U.S. Open so far. It would take too long to delve into all of the drama right here, but rest assured it was a wild one against Daniil Medvedev on Sunday night. Long story short (very short): Bonzi probably should have won in straight sets but ended up coming back from a break down in fifth to prevail 6-3, 7-5, 6-7(5), 0-6, 6-4 in three hours and 45 minutes. The Frenchman gets a much-needed 2 full days off, so he should be good to go for Wednesday’s match against Giron. The American also required 5 sets in his opening contest, an unspectacular win over clay-court specialist Mariano Navone. That does not inspire any confidence in Giron – nor does his 5-match losing streak going into New York
Eliot Spizzirri +3.5 games over Luciano Darderi (-120)
I don’t even care that Darderi actually won a hard-court match in Winston-Salem last week and another one in the U.S. Open first round. The Italian is still basically an automatic fade every time he plays on this surface. He is a hopeless 5-20 on hard courts (4-16 outdoors) dating back to the start of 2024. Spizzirri is more than capable of capitalizing on this golden opportunity. The American wild card clearly likes this tournament. He defeated Joao Fonseca to qualify for the main draw last summer and opened this fortnight with a straight-set victory over an in-form Stefan Dostanic. With home-court advantage and the surface edge, Spizzirri really should win this one outright.
