Rafael Nadal v David Ferrer Preview – August 28th, 2018
Rafael Nadal is one of the front-runners for outright success at this year’s US Open where he is trading as 3/1 second favourite* (betting odds taken on August 26th, 20187 at 7:48 pm) behind only Novak Djokovic. So he will be expected to make fairly light work for this first round match against his compatriot David Ferrer. This one is set to start in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Rafael Nadal v David Ferrer Odds*
Rafael Nadal 1/180
David Ferrer 22/1
* (betting odds taken on August 26th, 20187 at 7:48 pm)
Nadal, the number one player in the world at the moment and he is the reigning US Open champion after getting the title for the third time in his career twelve months ago. It is just hard to find any kind of flaw in his game and he is in pretty good form. There was a bit of smart management from him after winning the Rogers Cup recently, because he decided to skip Cincinnati to give himself a rest ahead of the challenge of defending the title at Flushing Meadows. Nadal holds a 40-3 match record for this season with five titles.
It is hard to find any value in backing Nadal to come up with the win here just because he is such a strong favourite. We are going to look at a Rafael Nadal -9.5 Games Handicap for the match at 8/11 odds* (betting odds taken on August 26th, 20187 at 7:48 pm) because we think that he can stroll through the match up fairy unopposed, even though his opponent know him pretty well.
From the thirty previous matches between Nadal and Ferrer, Nadal holds a 25-6 win record.
David Ferrer has really done nothing of note this season to suggest that he get the better of Nadal. Ferrer holds a 9-17 match record for the season and suffered a first-round loss recently at both the Rogers Cup and the Western & Southern Open. Ferrer bombed in the first round of last season’s US Open against a far lesser opponent than Nadal. We don’t see him getting in the match.
Predictions
It has to be a simple and straightforward win for Nadal here in the opening round. He will be fresh enough to drive straight through this match after skipping Cincinnati and he isn’t likely to drop a set. He probably won’t give up too many games against Ferrer who is pretty much well past his best.
