US Open Day 5 Betting Tips: Back Bernarda Pera to get the win

It’s been a fascinating week so far at the US Open and with four days now complete we move into the third round. As usual we’ve got Max Saakyan in the tennis-tipping hot-seat to provide his best bets.

The second round is officially over, and suddenly we’re already in the third round with over 100 players out already on both sides. We’ve seen some crazy upsets in the second round, with Stefanos Tsitsipas exiting early as well as Casper Ruud.

The first match we'll delve into is Ben Shelton taking on Aslan Karatsev. The Russian has seemed to suddenly find his old form, and has won both his matches comfortably. He beat the favourite Jiri Lehecka in straight sets 6-3 6-3 6-3, and needed four sets to beat Roberto Carballes Baena to secure his position in the third round. He's now matched his best US Open result, where he similarly reached the third round back in 2021 where he lost to Jenson Brooksby. 

Now Karatsev takes on Ben Shelton, a man who has risen in the tennis rankings impressively well. He had a slight scare in the opening round to Pedro Cachin, where he dropped the first set 6-1. But managed to dominate afterwards, winning the next three 6-3 6-2 6-4. Although He had an easy pass against Dominic Thiem, who had to retire after one game in the second set, where he was clearly in discomfort. I think the over in this match is a good look.

Bernarda Pera has been in some fine form this week, beating Veronika Kudermetova in the opening round as a 4.5 underdog, beating the Russian in straight sets 7-5 6-4. She then came back from a set down to beat 22 year-old Xiyu Wang in the second round, reaching the third round for the first time in her career. She now faces Jelena Ostapenko, where she is a huge underdog. 

The Latvian surprisingly hasn't had much success at the US Open, with her best result being a couple of third round appearances. She needed to fight this week, needing three sets in both her opening round and second round, beating Jasmine Paolini and Elina Avanesyan. I think the bookies need to show some more respect to Bernarda Pera, and I think the game spread looks like great value here as well as the money line.