Stan Wawrinka v Grigor Dimitrov Preview – August 27th, 2018
This is one of the big matches of the first round of the US Open without a doubt. The 2016 US Open champion had to miss out on his title defence last season through injury. It has been a season of basically working his way back to full fitness but there have been signs that he can turn up and compete. His record in his last four US Open appearances is a quarter final, two semi-finals and then that win in 2016.
He gave Rafael Nadal a tough work out in their recent Rogers Cup meeting in Toronto, going to a tie-break in each match. Then he fought through to the quarter finals of Cincinnati where he went up against Roger Federer. Wawrinka got the opening set on the board there and missed out on a tie-break in the second to seal the match. Federer fought back in the third set to take the match victory.
But overall, positive signs from Wawrinka who is 8/11 odds* (betting odds taken on August 26th, 20187 at 7:48 pm) to win this.
Stan Wawrinka v Grigor Dimitrov Winner Betting Odds
Stan Wawrinka 8/11
Grigor Dimitrov 11/10
* (betting odds taken on August 26th, 20187 at 7:48 pm)
Bulgaria’s Dimitrov, ranked 8th in the world, will probably be a bit frustrated at having drawn such a tough opening match at the US Open. It hasn’t been a great season from him and just back at Wimbledon he lost in the first round to Wawrinka. He made it to the quarters of the Rogers Cup where he was blown away by Kevin Anderson and then slipped out of Cincinnati against Novak Djokovic over three sets in the round of sixteen. His record this season 22-15 for wins/losses and he is 6-3 in Slams.
Aside from a couple of notable performances at the Australian Open in the last couple of seasons, he has a pretty poor track record in Grand Slams. Only twice before has he been past the third round at the US Open (a fourth-round exit in 2014 and in 2016) and he holds a poor 8-7 win/loss record at Flushing Meadows in his career. Only his win percentage at the French Open is worse than his US Open performances in the Slams.
Prediction
We have to stick with Wawrinka coming through and knocking out a high seed in his opening match. He has battled well in tough games recently and basically, Dimitrov doesn’t have the track record in Slams to really warrant backing.
