the 2016 us open takes place from 29th august to the 11th september at new york’s billie jean king national tennis centre. this will be the 136th us open and the prize money just keeps on growing, with the winner of the fourth and final slam of the year set to take home a cool $3.5m!
read on as we take a closer look at the men’s tournament, offering up our predictions and betting tips. alongside the many free bets offered by our partner bookmakers and our brilliant live odds comparison, these give you the best chance of making a profit from this year’s us open.
the favourite, as ever, is novak djokovic, who remains the world number one by a good distance despite a fine recent run from andy murray. the serbian supremo is priced at best betting odds of 11/10 with coral, which may strike many as a little short given his recent results.
djokovic crashed out of wimbledon and gave a mysterious press conference in which he alluded to some mental or physical – or both – problems. he didn’t go into much detail, not wanting to detract from his opponent’s fine performance and many were prepared to accept there was just, perhaps, a slight injury.
however, whilst djokovic then went on to win the rogers cup, he was beaten in the first round of the olympics. he played poorly and was in tears after the loss to juan martin del potro and he also made an early exit from the doubles.
he had made no secret of his desire to triumph in rio and the manner of his two losses make his odds for the us open too short for us. following his loss to sam querrey at wimbledon he alluded to fatigue and trouble with the extreme pressures his amazing run had created. as such we simply cannot back him at odds so close to evens and we will look elsewhere.
the obvious place to start would be the second favourite, murray. the scottish world number two lost in the fourth round here at the us open last year. with djokovic defending his title this gives the two-time olympic champion a real chance to take a big bite out of djokovic’s world rankings lead.
it was long felt that the us open was murray’s best chance of winning a slam and he made his first major final here in 2008. he then won his first grand slam at flushing meadows in 2012. that victory came after his win at the 2012 olympics and he would dearly love to do the “double double” here. priced at odds of 2/1 with bet365 murray is sure to appeal to many following a run of 22 straight wins which delivered him the titles at queens, wimbledon, rio and then a final appearance at cincinnati last time out.
however, it is that run that concerns us. murray has played a lot of tennis recently and was suffering from a shoulder injury when he lost the final of the cincinnati masters to marin cilic. physically and emotionally the strain of such a successful period may just be too much for murray and as such we are looking a little further down the betting for our main tip.
our live odds comparison shows rafa nadal available at huge odds of 25/1 with paddy power to win the 2016 us open. we predict the spanish bulldog can confound critics by claiming another grand slam. at odds of 25/1 he certainly offers sterling each way value.
nadal looked back to somewhere near his best in rio before losing to an inspired del potro (who is priced at 20/1 here) in the semis. his record at the us open is good, with two wins, a final and two semis from the last six tournaments he has played in.
with big doubts over the two players that head the odds and no roger federer, nadal is the only other serial slam winner in the field. odds of 25/1 are just too big, so get on nadal now and watch him roll back the years.