US Open Men's Day 8 Tips

US Open Men's Day 8 Tips: Harris capable of taking tight clash over Opelka

The fourth round continues at the US Open and there's plenty to discuss with four matches on today's schedule. Our tennis columnist Dan Weston them all...

Van De Zandschulp shocks Schwartzman as other favourites progress

There were wins for Daniil Medvedev, Carlos Alcaraz Garfia and Felix Auger-Aliassime yesterday as favourites, while there was an upset with Botic van de Zandschulp getting the better of Diego Schwartzman in five sets as a heavy pre-match underdog, with the Dutchman now facing Medvedev in the quarter-finals.

Fighting for the remaining four quarter-final spots are the eight players on todays' fourth round schedule. Three matches feature huge favourites, with the other match looking rather more competitive. I'll run briefly through each clash.

Current version of Zverev has big edge over Sinner

Alexander Zverev 1.19 v Jannik Sinner 6.00: The tournament third favourite, Zverev, is a very strong favourite over Sinner and a couple of months ago, I'd have thought this price was absurd. However, the German is unbeaten since the end of Wimbledon and has now won 14 in a row including three over top 10 opposition.

Sinner has huge potential but he also has quite a bit to find, numbers-wise, compared to Zverev, and while I make the market price a little short, it's not hugely so and there's not much to quibble about in terms of value here.

Opelka over-rated for Harris clash

Reilly Opelka 1.93 v Lloyd Harris 2.06: I'm not a huge buyer of Opelka and I consider him hugely over-rated by the market on a general basis. He has a similar dynamic but worse numbers than peak John Isner and yet the market is pricing Opelka as being better - and I'm not sold on that at all.

Today, the big-serving American faces Lloyd Harris and based on hard court data, the South African actually looks better. They met in Toronto several weeks ago and it was even money apiece pre-match - Opelka won 4-6 7-6 7-6 in a really tight match - and I envisage another tight contest here. Harris can get revenge for that loss in Toronto, but he'll need to win tiebreaks to do so.

Berrettini should routinely beat Otte

Oscar Otte 7.60 v Matteo Berrettini 1.15: Otte has done superbly to get to this stage, but he's a huge underdog against the Italian, who has improved so much this year and is now one of the best servers on tour.

Add to that, Berrettini breaks opponents around double the amount of most big-servers and it's not difficult to understand why he's having an excellent season. Anything other than a routine Berrettini win would be a surprise.

Djokovic overwhelming favourite to end Brooksby's journey

Novak Djokovic 1.03 v Jenson Brooksby 27.00: I mentioned several times last week that Brooksby has huge potential and will clearly be making a huge impact on the main tour for years to come.

However, there's a big difference between potential and getting the better of the world number one, who is an overwhelming favourite to get the job done tonight. Djokovic looks a few ticks short, and I hope that Brooksby gives him a good match at the very least.