Andy Schooler previews Thursday’s second-round action at the US Open in New York.
Tennis betting tips: Daily best bets
1pt Gabriel Diallo to beat Jaume Munar at evens (Unibet, BetMGM, Virgin Bet)
1pt Daniel Altmaier to win the first set v Stefanos Tsitsipas at 7/4 (BoyleSports)
Gabriel Diallo v Jaume Munar
Diallo leads the head-to-head here 2-0 and, notably, one of those wins came right here at Flushing Meadows 12 months ago.
The other came – in straight sets - just a couple of months ago on the grass of Mallorca.
Now, admittedly, I suspect the Canadian would prefer to be playing this match on a grasscourt but it’s still pretty slick in New York and I certainly feel conditions favour the big server, who landed 17 aces during his first-round win over Damir Dzumhur, who has been in decent form himself.
Munar is more at home on a slower surface and while he did have some decent hardcourt results earlier in the season, he’s rather struggled during the summer campaign.
This just looks like a match-up where one player is going to like the conditions much more than the other and with that in mind, I’m surprised the bookies have this as basically a 50-50 contest.
I’ll side with Diallo.
Stefanos Tsitsipas v Daniel Altmaier
Tsitsipas’ four-set win over Alexandre Muller in round one hinted at better times ahead but we’ve seen a lot of false dawns from the Greek.
He’s not won back-to-back matches since Barcelona in April and seems capable of losing to pretty much anyone at the moment.
Could Altmaier be the next cab off that particular rank? Well, yes.
He impressed with a five-set upset of Hamad Medjedovic on Tuesday, a match which saw him concede only four break points.
Another strong serving performance could well trouble a player woefully short on confidence.
However, the concern for me is how long the German was on court in his first-round match.
It took him close to five hours to win so if Tsitsipas is able to take this long, I suspect that will be to his advantage.
With this in mind, I think the angle here is to back Altmaier to win the first set at 7/4.
Tsitsipas has lost the opener in five of his last seven matches and I’m sure Altmaier will know he’ll likely need to take control of this early on.
Posted at 1845 BST on 27/08/25
Safer gambling
We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.
Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.
