WTA US Open Day 2 Tips: Emma Raducanu could struggle in round one

Halep and Kasatkina exit before Swiatek starts

Simona Halep and Darya Kasatkina headlined the big names exiting on day one in New York, with Halep stunned in three sets by the Ukrainian qualifier, Daria Snigur. As for the previously in-form Kasatkina, she fell in three sets also at the hands of the Brit, Harriet Dart.

Tournament favourite and top seed Iga Świątek will be hoping for an easy passage against Jasmine Paolini. Fortunately for the Pole, the market has priced her up as a virtual bye to progress.

Tauson's time to test Muguruza

There are a couple of cracking matches in prospect between established players and young prospects, with ninth seed Garbine Muguruza facing the Dane, Clara Tauson. I've written about Tauson for a number of years as a player to watch, but injuries and inconsistency have slowed her rise up the rankings.

I still think Tauson can easily be a long-term top 10 player, and quite possibly a fair bit higher, and a victory over Muguruza, who has won just three of her last 12 matches, would help. The market finds it pretty much impossible to split the duo.

Zheng can get past Ostapenko

Tauson's fellow 19-year-old Qinwen Zheng is another player making a name for herself quickly on the main tour, and gave eventual winner Elena Rybakina a real test at Wimbledon in round three. Wins over Ons Jabeur and Bianca Andreescu several weeks ago in Toronto have helped to frank Zheng's high level, while today's opponent Jelena Ostapenko hasn't impressed hugely since her strong grass court season concluded.

Zheng is priced up at 1.9620/21 here, and I'm not sure about that line - I'd have her as a slight favourite.

Kenin favourite to pick up victory boost

Sofia Kenin needed a wild card to compete in the tournament, having seen her ranking fall into the 400s following long-term injury. Kenin lost six in a row from January to March when she took five months off the tour with an ankle problem, but came back at the start of August to three more defeats. There was a hint of improvement last week in Cleveland, but I'd be stunned if she could show her best level here in the next couple of weeks.

Kenin may not need to be at her best to get past the German, Jule Niemeier, who tends to do her best work on clay. Kenin is 1.695/7 to pick up a morale (and ranking) boosting victory.

Raducanu to be tested by Cornet

Finally, Emma Raducanu is a similar price at 1.715/7 to get her title defence off to a winning start against the French veteran, Alize Cornet.

The biggest issue for Raducanu is her serve currently, and Cornet is one of the toughest unseeded players which she could have drawn, seemingly not in decline despite her advancing years.

On hard court this year, Cornet has a higher service points won percentage, with Raducanu a similar edge on return, but that does illustrate the difficulty in which Raducanu should have in order to emerge victorious tonight, or to get to the business end of the event this year - she doesn't have much of a statistical edge over her unseeded opponent tonight.