US Open Betting / Sean Calvert / 06 September 2011 /

Gilles Simon has played a lot of tennis in New York this week and he won't relish facing the huge serves of John Isner, says Sean Calvert

The second week of the 2011 US Open got off to a good start on Monday, with two winners from three bets and a profitable day as we head towards the business end of the tournament.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova took out Francesca Schiavone despite more highly questionable serving, while Janko Tipsarevic and JC Ferrero cruised over the 38.5 game mark and would surely have gone a lot further had JC's blisters not become unbearable.

On to Tuesday then and Andy Murray continues his quest for a maiden Slam, and comes up against Donald Young today, who is one of only four left handers ever to beat the Scot in a tour level match.

Murray has a 35-15 record against lefties, but 12 of those losses were against Rafa Nadal. The others were to Fernando Verdasco and Thomaz Bellucci, so a Murray loss to a southpaw is rare.

Young has had a surprisingly good tournament, but he caught Murray cold when he beat him at Indian Wells and it would be a huge shock if it happened again. This match is scheduled for 11am New York time though, which is when the Scot is generally at his most vulnerable.

Murray should take this comfortably enough, but I won't be betting on it at around [1.09] that's for sure.

A better men's bet has to be John Isner to take out Gilles Simon in another match scheduled for 11am (16:00, UK time) because of the threat of heavy and prolonged rain in the New York area today.

This is something to factor in to today's wagers, as rain delays often have game-changing effects on matches - just ask Tim Henman.

Isner and Simon have never met before, so the Frenchman won't have faced anything like the metronomic serving of the big man in his career (with the exception of Ivo Karlovic, who Simon has lost to in two of their last three meetings).

The Frenchman had never bettered the last 32 in New York until this year and he will certainly be tired after three lengthy matches in the tournament so far totalling 668 minutes on court, compared to Isner's 453, so he's played effectively one long match more than the American here.

The last person you want to face when you're below par is Isner and although Simon is a decent returner, he won't get as much joy as he did in his win over Juan Martin Del Potro.

Isner loves playing in front of his home fans, as he's proved all summer and I think his calmer temperament will give him the edge on the big points and also if there's a rain delay.

Back the big man at a tempting [2.02] to reach his first US Open quarter-final.

In the women's last-eight matches today, Vera Zvonareva takes on Sam Stosur in a match that's extremely tough to call.

Stosur has won the last seven matches in a row against Vera and in all of them the Aussie has been the betting underdog - as she is again today.

Vera played a great game in handing my tip Sabine Lisicki a beating in the last round, but she has problems dealing with the high-bouncing kick serves of Stosur, who would be the clear choice under normal circumstances.

However, the fact that Stosur has played two incredibly long matches back-to-back here puts me off piling into the [2.2] about an Aussie win and I think it's a better call to back the three sets in this one at the better price of [2.36].

Recommended Bets
Back Isner to beat Simon at [2.02]
Back three sets in Stour v Zvonareva at [2.36]

Follow Sean during the US Open on twitter @seancalvert1

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