Johanna Konta among 3 storylines to follow at the 2016 US Open
Published:
The final Grand Slam of the season gets underway on Bank Holiday Monday and has a number of questions to answer.
Novak Djokovic’s pursuit of redemption after early exits at both Wimbledon and the Olympics aside, a number of storylines are worth following through the first week in New York.
Here’s our favourite three:
Who rivals Williams?
Should Serena Williams win the US Open for the seventh time in her career (and she’s the 5/4 favourite to do so) she will move ahead of Stefi Graf as the women’s player with the most Grand Slam titles in the Open Era.
Although the American has reached the final of all three of the other major tournaments this year, she has only won once.
However, if anyone is to once again stop Williams at the final hurdle it will likely be different players to the ones who managed it at the Australian and French Opens.
Garbine Muguruza, who triumphed in Paris, has never made it past the second round of the US Open. Angelique Kerber has a slighty better relationship with the Flushing Meadows tournament, but not much. She’s not made it beyond the fourth round since 2011.
Back a European male winner
Juan Martin del Potro, tipped elsewhere on these pages as a potential victor this year, is the only US Open winner in the last 12 years that hasn’t been European. All of the 11 other champions have been.
Before this spell of dominance, European players had claimed just one of the previous 11 editions. However, the likes of Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka and Rafael Nadal will hope Europe’s dominance remains.
A Great British hope
No, not Andy Murray, but Johanna Konta.
The 13th-seed has already shown she can be a threat at Grand Slams by reaching the semi-finals of this year’s Australian Open.
She followed that up by winning her first WTA title at the Stanford Classic in July, beating Venus Williams in the final.
At 50/1, the 25-year-old looks a solid each-way bet.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
