US Open Betting / Sean Calvert / 27 August 2011 /

Hurricane Irene allowing, the 2011 US Open kicks off at Flushing Meadows on Monday. As I do before every Grand Slam Sean Calvert has analysed the draw and selected five potential first round upsets in the men's opening round matches.

The inclement weather in the New York area this week has meant that the qualifying is yet to be completed at the time of writing, so these selections are from the draw as it currently stands.

Julien Benneteau v Nicolas Almagro
It has to be worth siding with the in-form Benneteau against Almagro at a tasty-looking [2.7] in this first round encounter.

Benny has made an excellent comeback from a long-term wrist injury and has won 11 of his last 12 matches, with the one defeat coming against Rafa Nadal in Cincinnatti. He plays in the finals of Winston-Salem tonight.

Almagro was hammered out of sight by an admittedly rampant Tomas Berdych in Cincy last week and his ranking comes almost exclusively from hoovering up the smaller clay-court events.

Their personal head-to-head series stands at 1-1, with the last meeting going the way of the Frenchman on a hard-court in Auckland back in 2008 and Benny looks a good price here.

Viktor Troicki v Alejandro Falla
Anyone who watched Troicki's most recent match on tour - against Fabio Fognini in Cincinnati - won't be rushing to back the talented Serbian at odds of around [1.25] against tricky Colombian, Falla.

Troicki was abysmal in a straight sets thrashing by the Italian, who up until then hadn't won a hard-court match in a year and who proceeded to be thumped by James Blake in the next round.

That is shocking form from the world number 15 who seems to have lost his way since failing to beat Andy Murray from two sets and a break up at Roland Garros this year.

Falla is an awkward leftie who has some notable scalps in Slams, plus he made it to the last 16 at Roland Garros this year before losing in five to Chela, so he's not going to roll over and let Troicki take this easily. Back the Colombian at [5.4]

Adrian Mannarino v Florian Mayer
Florian Mayer has an appalling record at the US Open, with three first round exits from five starts. The German has never beaten an opponent ranked inside the top-100 at Flushing Meadows.

His only wins have come against Stefan Koubek (in 2006) and Flavio Saretta (in 2004) and his recent form is awful as well, with straight sets first round losses to Ivo Karlovic and Richard Gasquet in Montreal and Cincy.

Young Frenchman, Mannarino, has hardly set the world on fire lately, but he has beaten the likes of Juan Martin Del Potro and Gilles Simon this year and the leftie is more than capable of taking this at a tempting [3.2]

Steve Darcis v Dmitry Tursunov
Darcis came through qualifying at Roland Garros to reach the last 32 this year, defeating Michael Llodra, Alex Bogomolov Jr and Philipp Petzschner before losing out to Gael Monfils and the diminutive Belgian is one to be on the right side of when he hits form.

A streaky campaigner, Darcis has been known to come through qualis and win tournaments in the past, and of course, he beat Tursunov in Winston-Salem this week when the betting underdog.

The Russian's form has tailed off again after he successfully capped his comeback from long-term injury with the title in s'Hertogenbosch in the summer and he's only won two matches since, so confidence will be low.

Take the Belgian at around [2.4]

Nikolay Davydenko v Ivan Dodig
Not an easy one to call for a number of reasons, but it's worth backing against the woefully out of form Davydenko against anyone half decent at the moment - and Dodig falls into that category.

The Russian's confidence has been shot for a while and each time he wins you expect him to build on it, but he never does - he hasn't won two matches at a tournament since he won the title in Munich at the end of April.

Davy was simply dreadful against Mardy Fish in Cincy and he lost out to Sergiy Stakhovsky in Winston-Salem last week in straight sets, which is another poor loss in a dreadful year.

Dodig meanwhile beat Rafa Nadal in Montreal before tiredness caused his defeat in the next round to Janko Tipsarevic.

He defeated Ernests Gulbis in Cincy before retiring in a bizarre match against Gael Monfils in which both players looked dead on their feet at different times.

If Dodig has recovered - and I'm not sure why he's the underdog in this one in his first ever meeting with Davydenko - you have to take the [2.22] available.

It was tough to narrow it down to five this year, with several others catching my eye as likely struggles for the shorter priced player.

These include American youngsters Jack Sock and Ryan Harrison, who each have chances in front of their home crowd against Marc Gicquel and Marin Cilic respectively.

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