US Open 2022, 2nd Round, Thursday, 01.09.2022
For 19 years, fans in New York have wanted a winner to sing the American national anthem with them. Since Andy Roddick in 2003, his countrymen have tried practically everything to finally make it back to the throne.
Once again, no American is among the top favourites at the 2022 US Open. The most experienced of them will play his 2nd round on Thursday, and is also favoured by Bwin.
In my Isner Rune tip I reveal why my bet is also in favour of the ace king!
Two quarter-finals, most recently a double elimination in the 1st round – John Isner and the Grand Slam at home in New York, that doesn’t seem to be the best combination. Will the 37-year-old finally make it to the top this year?
In any case, he was already quite confident in his first round. Against Federico Delbonis he managed a 6-1, 6-1, 7-5. A result without a fourth set or at least a tiebreak? That is not at all known from him.
As usual, his opponent did not get a single chance to break, and with 19 aces Isner was relatively merciful. Earlier in Cincinnati, he showed himself as the John Isner everyone has known on the tour for almost 20 years.
He won three matches, eventually losing to Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarter-finals. All matches had three sets to offer, plus no less than seven tiebreaks! As a result, Betano is offering a fairly low 1.90 for Thursday’s match with over 1.5 tiebreaks.
Games without a 7-6 or 6-7 are so rare for Isner that you have to mark them in your calendar. With Holger Rune, he now faces an opponent who, it has to be said, could well be his own son!
18 years younger, the Dane now faces the 2.08m giant from the USA for the first time. The bookmakers are somewhat undecided as to who they should trust with how much, but with 1.60 to 2.30, the role of favourite goes to the “senior”.
Probably also because Holger Rune is completely out of shape since his sensationally fast rise a few months ago. Since his quarter-final at the French Open, he had only won two matches before the start in New York.
Unfortunately, at least from a German point of view, he then landed win number three on Tuesday. Rune won 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 against Peter Gojowczyk, a first sigh of relief, but since the German should not be taken as a yardstick, caution is still called for.
He committed twelve double faults in the first round, which might be a few too many against Isner. The yield of his breaks was also weak. Three out of 14? Against Isner he will be lucky to get a break chance at all!
On the other hand, he rigorously fended off all six of Gojowczyk’s break chances. In his second ever appearance at the US Open, the best result is already set, but of course Rune wants more than “just” a 2nd round finish.
My Isner Rune Tip
One is in the late autumn of his career, the other is just getting started. In the duel of the generations, it should be incredibly exciting between John Isner and Holger Rune on Thursday, because both have completely different playing styles.
For the US-American, his service is still the big plus, he collects aces like no other. In my analysis, I could not recognise any stable form in Rune, he is also clearly weaker on serve.
In the end, I can’t imagine that the young Dane will have the longer leverage over a player who also annoyed the best in the world in 2022 and therefore I’m betting:
Isner wins against Rune!
