The U.S. Open kicks-off Monday morning and the prize pools look really healthy as we gear up for an exciting two weeks of DFS action. This article will be for VIPs only during this tournament as we cover four of my favorite plays on the board for the main slates.
One important thing to note is that the scoring system is slightly different than what we’ve been using for the last month or so – the main takeaway being that the men’s players see a small boost across the board. I’ll have about 60-40/70-30 men in my player pool in the early rounds and if you’re ever struggling to decide between two players in your lineup, always side with the male’s potential for extra games won, sets won, and aces.
I am primarily using an odds based approach for Tennis and mixing in current form and surface history. Make sure to jump into Slack Chat for any questions and I’ll be dropping the rest of my player pool.
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MY TENNIS ACES FOR AUGUST 27
Slate Locks at 11:00 am ET
Milos Raonic ($9,700) – If you’re looking around at the top of the salary range than Milos Raonic is my favorite play on the board. He is a massive -3333 favorite against qualifier Carlos Berlocq and -400 to win in straight sets. There is simply a massive skill disparity here, which is not uncommon on Monday, but Raonic has the highest odds to win and has a big enough to serve to rack up some bonus points. Raonic pushed Djokovic to three sets in his last match and tallied 21 aces. Look, the top of the range is filled with safety and upside, but Raonic makes the list here as most likely to put up a dominant win.
Natalia Vikhlyantseva ($8,300) – If that first play was too chalky for you then this is a name you are looking for…even if you can’t pronounce it. Vikhylantseva is right at the average salary to build a lineup and is a -303 favorite and will be squaring off with 881st ranked Vania King who is currently on a six-match losing streak and is without a win in 2018. I’m not sure I can trust the 21-year old Vikhlantseva in cash but the price is right as even though she has struggled a bit as of late she has taken on the much higher quality competition and knocked off King 6-3, 6-2 in the first round of the 2017 Australian Open. It’s hard to gauge ownership on this massive slate but I suspect this will be a sub-10% play come lineup lock. One last note here if you didn’t read the opening of this article, don’t overexposure yourself to any women on this slate, including Vikhlyantseva.
John Isner ($8,900) – I’m a little worried about back-to-back losses for the big serving American but ultimately it’s hard to look away from this hard-court monster on Monday. Isner usually turns up well for the majors and was on a run of 10 straight wins, including a tournament victory in Atlanta, before his recent struggles. The bright side is that he should be plenty rested to play Bradley Klahn, a wildcard entry without a big-name win on his resume. I am expecting Isner to be relatively popular but he’s not someone I’m comfortable leaving out of my player pool because of his high ceiling and ability to deliver ace-after-ace.
Lloyd George Harris ($6,600) – Welcome to one of our odds-based line values of the day. And it’s a healthy one as you get $1,733 away from the average salary with a -149 favorite in Harris. Harris has won five of his last six and 16 of his last 19 albeit against lower competition. But he’s a solid 21-year old player who rolled through qualifying without dropping a set over those three matches and put up 6-2 or better scores on three occasions. But what really makes this interesting is the state of his opponent, Gilles Simon, who is ranked 40th in the world after his run to the round of 16 at Wimbledon. But he has now lost four straight matches and withdrew late from the tournament last week with back issues. Obviously, something is wrong with the Frenchmen and with the odds and price tag on Harris, I’m willing to roll the dice and see if the youngster can give us a win that would set us up in fantastic shape in GPPs.
That’s it guys and girls! Please jump into Slack and find me to talk about the slate and definitely let me know how we can improve our Tennis coverage at DFS Army.