Andy Schooler will be previewing every day of the 2026 US Open – here’s his look at Sunday’s opening set of matches.
Tennis tips: Today's US Open best bets
1.5pts Martin Landaluce to beat Jacob Fearnley at evens (General)
1pt Alexander Shevchenko to beat Dino Prizmic at 5/2 (BOYLE Sports)
Martin Landaluce v Jacob Fearnley
I think this match has the wrong favourite and I’m happy to back Landaluce.
The Spaniard, an eyecatcher in the first half of the season, admittedly hit something of a funk when he lost six consecutive matches either side of Wimbledon.
However, he showed encouraging signs when he beat Jack Draper and Matteo Arnaldi in Cincinnati before only losing in two tie-breaks to the in-form Thiago Agustin Tirante.
Earlier in the campaign, Landaluce beat Luciano Darderi, Karen Khachanov and Seb Korda on this surface in Miami.
Such efforts have given him some decent data on hardcourts – this season’s he’s held 78% of the time on this surface at tour level and won 22% of return games. That combined total of 100 is nicely clear of Fearnley’s equivalent figure of 93.
The Briton has beaten only one top-50 player on a hardcourt this season, Adrian Mannarino, and was most recently seen losing in the final round of qualifying in New York – he’s only playing in the main draw as a lucky loser.
The week before qualifying, he won just five games in defeat to Taro Daniel at the Quebec City Challenger.
Landaluce is ranked 35 places above Fearnley and I believe he has a much higher ceiling than his opponent here.
Back him at even money.
Dino Prizmic v Alexander Shevchenko
I’ve been pretty happy with how the match bets have gone on this site so far this season (for non-regulars, I do them for the Grand Slams and the ATP Masters 1000 events).
My default setting is to seek out value and there have been plenty of underdog winners.
While I’ve already picked out Landaluce, who is a slight outsider, I also had a look for a bigger price and I’ve settled on Shevchenko, who looks too big at 5/2 to win this one.
Prizmic beat Novak Djokovic in Rome earlier this season but I think he may well still be being priced up too short due to that victory.
The Croatian is currently on a 2-6 run and has lost both matches since moving onto the North American hardcourts. He’s played only six matches at tour level on this surface this season and while he has won three of those, none was against a top-100 player.
Shevchenko is inside that mark (just) but, more importantly, he’s had better hardcourt results.
Top-10 star Ben Shelton was defeated in Miami earlier this season, while the Kazakh also made the last eight in Adelaide at the start of the year.
Admittedly, Shevchenko’s recent form is also disappointing, although, unlike his opponent, he has won a hardcourt match this summer, while it was only last month that he was a semi-finalist on the ATP Tour (on clay in Gstaad).
He’ll take confidence from that, and his efforts on this surface in 2026.
While not totally convinced he’ll win this, I am sure he should be a shorter price and will take a punt accordingly.
Posted 2220 BST on 29/08/2026
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