Back Janowicz over established second tier performers at US Open
Published:Juan Martin Del Potro has been granted a similar standing to the old cartel of Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer ahead of the US Open and the next strata of the tennis class system also has a promising fresh face.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (33/1), Tomas Berdych (40/1), and David Ferrer (60/1) – all of whom have had their clocks cleaned regularly by Murray, Djokovic or both on the hard courts in recent years – occupy the next echelon of challengers for the final Grand Slam of the year.
However amongst them lurks a player, the limit of whose potential has yet to be calculated. His name Jerzy Janowicz, his price for US Open victory, 50/1.
The Pole shot to prominence at Wimbledon 2013, blasting his way through to the semi-final stage, where he gave eventual winner Murray a fair run for his money, pocketing a set on the way to an honourable tournament discharge.
The man who entered SW19 ranked 22 in the world has only begun to be seeded in Grand Slams this year and has been posting career bests in each of them along the way.
Currently rated a career-high 17 in the world, Janozwicz can count on a superior seeding to that which he enjoyed at Wimbledon at Flushing Meadows and as such should find going deep in the tournament that much easier.
Bizarrely for a player with a monstrous serve and block-rocking base line howitzers in his arsenal, the 22-year-old concentrated his efforts on clay at in the early stages of his career. As such his scope for improvement on a hard court surface on which he’s played just 34 matches is inestimable.
Punters know roughly what they’re going to get from Tsonga, Berdych and Ferrer, who must generally rely upon the top dogs being below their best in order to sneak past them.
Unlike them, it’s far from impossible to foresee the son of Lodz joining the highest echelon of men’s tennis in the years to come, meaning the 50/1 about his success in the US Open is more attractive than the odds about victory for that long established trio.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
