By Chris Oddo | Thursday August 25, 2016
Olympic stars Juan Martin del Potro and Monica Puig could cause problems for seeded players during the first week of the U.S. Open.
Photo Source: Chris Oddo
On the day before the U.S. Open men’s and women’s singles draws are revealed, we take a look at seven players who nobody will want to face in the first round.
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Men: Juan Martin del Potro, Fabio Fognini, Radek Stepanek
Del Potro: The tennis world already got a glimpse of what kind of a draw fire starter the Tower of Tandil can be when he dumped the No. 1 player in the world out of the Olympics in the first round and went on an emotional run to the final. The 27-year-old Argentine may not be all the way back to peak form in terms of his slowly developing backhand, but he’s proven in the last six months, and more particularly, the last six weeks, that he still has what it takes to knock off top players and work his way deep into elite draws.
Fognini: Always a tad mercurial, and never known for his hard court prowess, there’s still something about Fabio Fognini that makes him a guy you just don’t want to face early in a major. He’s a player that can ratchet up his level and match strokes with anybody on any given day. We saw that last year in New York, when in one of the most entertaining matches of 2015, Fognini ended Rafael Nadal’s U.S. Open in five sets. The Italian has been in decent form since Wimbledon. He won the title in Umag (albeit that was clay) and knocked off Steve Johnson in Canada. He also nearly upset Andy Murray at the Olympics before falling in three in the round of 16.
Stepanek : After an injury-marred segment that forced him from the Top 40 to outside of the Top 300 in 2014 and 2015, Stepanek has begun the long road back to the Top 100. He’s almost there, but not quite, and he’ll still need to qualify for the main draw in New York if he is to cause anyone trouble in the main draw. That’s something the 37-year-old did at Roland Garros when he qualified and proceeded to take the first two sets from Andy Murray in the first round. He couldn’t finish off the victory in Paris, but he proved that he’s a force to be reckoned with even at his advanced age.
Women: Monica Puig, Ekaterina Makarova, Kristina Mladenovic, Lucie Safarova
Puig: It’s going to be tricky to follow up a career-changing Olympic moment for Puerto Rico’s Monica Puig. That said, if the 22-year-old has even a fraction of the magic that she possessed in Rio, watch out U.S. Open. One thing’s for certain, all eyes will be on her first round match, no matter who she faces.
Mladenovic : A breakout quarterfinalist last year at New York, the Frenchwoman is just outside the Top 30. She went only 4-4 on the hardcourts after Wimbledon but maybe a trip to the scene of her best major performance will rekindle some of the magic for Kiki.
Safarova : One has to think it’s just a matter of time before Lucie Safarova finds her form again. She was a top story in 2015 when she reached the final at Roland Garros and climbed into the Top 10, but a nagging, dangerous bacterial infection knocked Safarova off her game and it’s taken her a very long time to recover. But she made the second week at Wimbledon and will be playing with no pressure to defend points in New York after a first-round last year.
Makarova : Everybody knows how dangerous the 28-year-old Russian is. She has been to the second week at two majors this season already and even knocked off two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova at the All England Club this summer. The 2014 U.S. Open semifinalist owns a 22-10 lifetime record at the U.S. Open. Whoever draws the Muscovite in the first round will surely be losing some sleep this weekend, no matter how nice their hotel.