Taylor Townsend did not have enough to beat Caroline Wozniacki in the first round, even though she took the first set.
I remember I tipped Wozniacki for her match against Kuznetsova at Wimbledon, however, Svetlana played well and now she is the clear favourite. I think Kuznetsova has a great chance of coming out on top as Wozniacki has not showed her best tennis in a long time. However, the Pole has character and will certainly not go down without a fight.
This is potentially a tough match to call and, at their best, the two look closely matched. The fact that the two girls are equal in their head-to-head record, with six wins each, suggests so too.
Kuznetsova is such an unpredictable player and I even doubted her in her match with Schiavone, however, she won very easily in the end. Of course the resistance here will be very different.
Perhaps Kuznetsova will win in straight sets with the same 7:5 6:4 score she achieved at Wimbledon. With this in mind I would advise ‘More than 20.5 games total’. Whatever the result here, I can’t see one player walking it and each set is likely to be close either way. Therefore the chances of this one going past 20 games is very high indeed.
See more US Open tips here.