Third-round action at the U.S. Open begins with a third-round showdown between Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe on Friday. Novak Djokovic and Alexei Popyrin are also aiming for a place in the proverbial second week of the tournament.
Here are my picks for two of Friday’s best matchups.
(13) Ben Shelton vs. (20) Frances Tiafoe
It’s a rematch of the last summer’s U.S. Open quarterfinals, and this time Shelton comes in with some expectations. In fact, he is the favorite against Tiafoe–which wasn’t the case in 2023. Shelton was the underdog in their previous U.S. Open tilt, but he won it in four sets and became a surprise semifinalist who delighted New York crowds with his booming serve and big-stage charisma.
Both Shelton and Tiafoe are playing well at the moment. The former looked confident in his straight-set win over Roberto Bautista Agut on Wednesday. The 21-year-old made the quarterfinals at the Cincinnati Masters earlier this month. Tiafoe made it all the way to the Cincy final before succumbing to Jannik Sinner.
Shelton is a perfect 2-0 in the head-to-head series. Look for it to be 3-0 when this one ends.
Pick: Shelton in 4
(28) Alexei Popyrin vs. (2) Novak Djokovic
Djokovic and Popyrin will be squaring off at a third major in 2024 when they meet again on Friday. They also went head-to-head at the Australian Open and Wimbledon, with Djokovic getting the job done in four sets both times to seize an overall 3-0 lead in the H2H series. He also prevailed 6-4, 6-2 at the 2019 Tokyo event.
As those competitive Grand Slam encounters with Djokovic indicate, Popyrin is playing the best tennis of his career this year–and it’s not even close. He is up to 28th in the rankings thanks in part to a Masters 1000 title in Montreal and so far in NYC the Aussie has absolutely thrashed both Soonwoo Kwon and Pedro Martinez. Unfortunately for Pop, Djoker has won 18 sets in succession dating back to the Olympics. The 24-time slam champ has not surrendered a set to anyone other than Carlos Alcaraz since he lost one to none other than Popyrin in the Wimbledon third round.
Pick: Djokovic in 3
Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on Twitter at @Dimonator.