By Jake Davies
- Caroline Wozniacki [2] vs Sam Stosur
- Novak Djokovic [6] vs Marton Fucsovics
- Naomi Osaka [20] vs Laura Siegemund
NEW YORK, UNITED STATES – We take a look at the three matches to watch out for on Day 2 of the 2018 US Open.
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Novak Djokovic [6] vs Marton Fucsovics H2H: First meeting
Novak Djokovic seemingly is out of his slump following a long-term elbow injury and can now look towards another major as a reigning Grand Slam champion, having won Wimbledon, which is his first major triumph in over two years.
Djokovic backed that win up by sealing an historic Masters 1000 title win in Cincinnati, which made him the only player to have claimed every single Masters title on tour. The key for Djokovic really has been finding his happiness on the court once again and enjoying the competitive battle that comes with being an elite tennis player and showing his passion in a positive way in the heat of the battle, which we saw in glimpses in the clay court season, but he looked back to his best from Queen’s and Wimbledon onwards.
Djokovic faces a tough opener in New York as he faces Hungarian No.1 Marton Fucsovics first off. Fucsovics has had a very good year on tour by winning his first ATP title in Geneva, where he beat Stan Wawrinka en route to that title and he’s now inside the World’s Top-50. It is a match that you would expect Djokovic to really win, but it is also a match-up that will truly test Djokovic’s game in the early stages of the US Open.
Djokovic’s consistency from the baseline should be too much for Fucsovics. Djokovic not only can extract plenty of unforced errors from the Hungarian, but he is also in a confident enough state of mind to regularly find his backhand down the line and that is the real barometer of how confident he is feeling on the court.
Prediction: Djokovic in four sets
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Caroline Wozniacki [2]. vs Sam Stosur H2H: Wozniacki leads 7-5
The first of the marquee matches on Day 2 of the US Open features the reigning Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki going up against the 2011 US Open winner Sam Stosur in a blockbuster of a first round.
Wozniacki has had so much success herself at this particular major, making her first ever major final at this tournament in 2009, and it was the event where we saw the first signs of her resurgence when she returned to the final in 2014, but it will be interesting to see how the Dane fares as she returns for the first time as one of the few active Grand Slam winners on tour.
Both players offer very different styles on a tennis court. Wozniacki likes to run a lot of balls down, show the defensive sides to her game, make her opponent beat themselves and virtually gives very little away in the rally, while Stosur plays much differently. The Australian likes to make use of her one-two punch combination of the big first serve coupled with the big forehand strike in order to impose her game on her opponent, but Stosur knows that she may be required to hit more forehands for winners than she would be used to against every other player on tour, because of the defensive capabilities of Wozniacki from the back of the court.
Wozniacki leads the head-t0-head 7-5 and definitely holds a mental edge in this match-up, but Stosur has had more matches under her belt after Wimbledon, while Wozniacki has been hurting from a leg injury and most recently a shoulder problem that forced her to withdraw against Kiki Bertens in Cincinnati.
I think Stosur has the game to cause problems for Wozniacki, but I think Wozniacki will really push the Australian to play more balls than she feels comfortable doing and will pose some serious questions out there for the former champion.
Prediction: Wozniacki in three sets
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Naomi Osaka [20] vs Laura Siegemund H2H: Tied at 1-1
This is a big two weeks for Naomi Osaka in many ways. She won the biggest title of her career when she won the 2018 Indian Wells title, but has struggled to really enjoy her time on a tennis court over the following few months and now will want a reaction from herself now that she is back on a hard court at a major.
Her first opponent is Germany’s Laura Siegemund. Siegemund is one of the toughest competitors out there and is not afraid to get under the skin of her opponent, but I think that Osaka will have too much natural power off the ground and should be able to dominate off her first serve in this head-to-head.
Prediction: Osaka in straight sets
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