The second round of the U.S. Open kicks off today and DraftKings is featuring another large contest with their $20 Rally Point Special and a $30k top payout. 32 matches are on the slate, which begins at 11 a.m. EST.
Check out our DFS Tennis Optimizer for full projections.
Top Tier
Frances Tiafoe ($10,400) over Sebastian Ofner
Tiafoe notably didn't have the summer he would've liked, but I watched each of those losses to Daniel Evans, Milos Raonic and Stan Wawrinka and all of them were high quality matches in which Tiafoe played well. I like him to win in straight sets once again over Ofner, a better clay court player who only played one U.S. hardcourt match this summer – a straight sets lost to 18-year-old American Alex Michelsen in Winston-Salem.
Coco Gauff ($10,000) over Mirra Andreeva
These two met in the third round of the French Open this year, with Gauff defeating the 16-year-old 6-7, 6-1, 6-1. Andreeva will have a lot more working against her this time around, considering she's significantly better on clay and will have a difficult environment being an inexperienced player against an American on Ashe. Andreeva is also coming off a poor first round showing in which she barely got by a qualifier, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Honorable Mention: Iga Swiatek ($11,400) over Daria Saville, Taylor Fritz ($11,300) over Juan Pablo Varillas
Middle Tier
Christopher Eubanks ($8,900) over Benjamin Bonzi
Eubanks won the most recent meeting between the two last year in D.C., and we know that he's made massive strides this year as he nearly knocked out Daniil Medvedev in the quarters of Wimbledon. This is a good second round draw for him in Bonzi, who has never made it past the third round of any major, or the second round of the U.S. Open. He's been playing some challengers lately, recently losing badly to a sub 14 UTR player.
Jennifer Brady ($8,400) over Magda Linette
Brady is making her first grand slam appearance since the French Open in 2021, and her comeback this summer is off to a solid start with a win over Jelena Ostapenko and a close loss to Elena Rybakina. Despite being the unseeded player in this matchup, she's the favorite and that angle worked well with the Matteo Berretini pick yesterday. In eight prior U.S. Open appearances, Linette was dispatched in the first round five times and has never made it past the third round.
Honorable Mention: Jakub Mensik ($7,800) over Titouan Droguet, Ben Shelton ($7,500) over Dominic Thiem
Value Tier
Borna Gojo ($5,400) over Mackenzie McDonald
Gojo is amid the best season of his career and is having a nice run in New York thus far, dropping just one set over three qualifying matches, and he only lost seven games in the first round in his win over Hugo Dellien. McDonald is a steady player but doesn't have any real weapons that make you confident in taking him as a sizeable favorite over a capable player. His 2-5 U.S. Open record is also far from inspiring.
Lin Zhu ($4,900) over Victoria Azarenka
I picked both of these players in my Monday article and now they are set to square off today. I don't think you can take much from Azarenka's match as she played an inferior opponent, while Zhu was mostly in control of her match in straight sets win. These two met in the fourth round of the Australian Open in January, with Azarenka prevailing 6-4 in the third. Her form isn't as good as it was then, so Zhu is capable of pulling off the upset.
Honorable Mention: Taylor Townsend ($6,000) over Beatriz Haddad Maia, Zhizhen Zhang ($4,400) over Casper Ruud
