Andy Murray v James Duckworth Preview – August 27th, 2018
After his hip injury, 2018 has just been about recovering and building up strength again for Andy Murray, ahead of next season. No-one is really expecting anything out of the former US Open champion, but he will be expected to deliver the goods in this opening match against AUstlriaa James Duckworth.
Andy Murray is at 4/7 odds to win this 3-0 in set betting at bet365* (betting odds taken on August 26th, 20187 at 7:48 pm).
Andy Murray v James Duckworth Winner Odds*
Andy Murray 1/12
James Duckworth 8/1
* (betting odds taken on August 26th, 20187 at 7:48 pm)
Andy Murray has only played the seven games this season and has taken a W4 L3 record from those. He didn’t start playing again until the summer and this will be his first Grand Slam appearance of 2018 so it is highly unrealistic to expect a particularly strong run from him. His best effort this season happened at the Citi Open where he made it through to the quarter finals before withdrawing because of having had a really late night finish before being expected to play the next day. He then lost in the first round of Cincinnati against Lucas Pouille.
Duckworth is ranked 448th in the world so still, Murray should be able to handle himself. He is carrying just a 2-5 win/loss record for the season so he hasn’t exactly been on top of his game at all. The Australian has had a pretty big list of injuries which kept him out for a year so he has had a long way back as well. The winner of this match will face either Feliciano Lopez or 30th seed Fernando Verdasco in the second round. Duckworth has never been past the second round at Flushing Meadows.
Prediction
Two players who have some pretty big disruptions recently because of health problems. We are expecting Murray to come through the challenge but just because Murray has dropped a set in each of his last four matches, we are backing a 3-1 win for Murray in set betting at 11/4 odds* (betting odds taken on August 26th, 20187 at 7:48 pm).
