US Open Men's Singles Day 7 Tips: Favourites to dominate on Sunday

• Paul likely to end Shelton's journey

• Tiafoe and Fritz make it three American favourites today

• Djokovic should ease past Gojo

Djokovic and Alcaraz through - both tested in different ways

In recent third round matches in New York, there were wins but contrasting fortunes for the tournament winner market leaders Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz. Djokovic was forced to fight back from two sets down against countryman Laslo Djere while Alcaraz beat Dan Evans in four sets in a high-quality encounter.

It was a bad day for several Brits with Cam Norrie ousted in straight sets by Matteo Arnaldi, but Jack Draper did make it through to set up a clash tomorrow with Andrey Rublev.

Paul's return game likely to be too good

Action starts at 17:00 UK time on Sunday with Tommy Paul facing Ben Shelton in an all-American clash, with Paul a solid 1.384/11 favourite to get past his countryman.

Shelton has outperformed my expectations considerably in this tournament, but faces a rather sizable upgrade in quality here against Paul, who still remains in with a good chance of converting our quarter three winner selection pre-tournament.

Paul's form line coming into this event was far superior, and already got the better of Shelton at the Australian Open in January at a similar price. That match was rather serve oriented, with Paul winning 79% of service points against Shelton's limited return, and if that dynamic continues, the only way Paul loses is if Shelton takes the odd break point chance and wins (probably) several tiebreaks.

Tiafoe's serve the difference against Hijikata

In what is a bit of a recurring theme today, we also see another men's singles match with an American favourite as Frances Tiafoe faces the Australian wild card, Rinky Hijikata. His run to this stage in the tournament will guarantee Hijikata to break the top 100, but the market doesn't fancy his chances of going any further, pricing up Tiafoe at 1.162/13 to get the job done. Tiafoe's much better serve makes that eventuality pretty likely.

Fritz another American favourite today

Continuing the theme, Taylor Fritz is 1.141/7 to get past qualifier Dominic Stricker, with the Swiss 21-year-old another player another to be breaking the top 100 after his run here. 14 sets for Stricker so far in the event after qualifying is not a positive for Stricker's case to continue his event here, and Fritz has eased his way into the fourth round having dropped just 13 games in nine sets so far, winning all by at least a double break margin. It would be a considerable shock for Fritz to not make the quarter-finals.

Djokovic the shortest-priced of all

Finally, the shortest-priced favourite of all today, Novak Djokovic, is just 1.021/50 to get past the Croatian qualifier, Borna Gojo. While Djokovic struggled initially against Djere, I don't anticipate the same outcome here with Gojo still ranked outside the top 100 at 25 years of age. That will change after those three wins here, and while they've been impressive straight-set triumphs, he is likely to be considerably outclassed by the tournament favourite, and it would be a surprise to see him even compete for a set.