Round 1 of the US Open continues Tuesday, and there are plenty of vulnerable favorites for us to try and beat on the card.

We’ll start with a pre-tournament favorite playing against a dangerous German under the lights at Louis Armstrong Stadium.

After winning his first Masters 1000 title in Toronto, plenty of people began wondering if Sinner was on the cusp of breaking his maiden at a Grand Slam.

But a loss in the first round of the Cincinnati Masters and a brutal draw has cooled the hype around the 22-year-old Italian at the 2023 US Open.

Not only is Sinner in the same section as Alexander Zverev and the same quarter as Carlos Alcaraz, but he’s got a pretty tricky opening match against Hanfmann on Tuesday too.

Hanfmann may be relatively unknown outside of tennis circles, but he was terrific during the clay season and has a reputation of a big-game hunter with five wins in his last nine matches against top-20 opposition.

It may be a stretch to suggest Sinner is on upset alert against Hanfmann, but this price is certainly tempting against a player who needed five sets to win his first round match at last year’s US Open.

This was supposed to be a breakout year for Draper.

The 21-year-old Englishman put the tennis world on notice with a terrific run of results at the end of 2022, but injuries have kept him on the sidelines for the lion’s share of 2023.

Draper, who made it to Round 3 before retiring due to injury last year in Flushing, has won a handful of matches during the North American hard-court swing, but he retired in his second match at ATP Winston-Salem, throwing further doubt on his fitness for the year’s final Grand Slam.

Draper normally should have no real issues with Albot, a journeyman who is 2-8 all time at the US Open, but the truth is that we have no idea if the Brit is healthy or not. 

Despite his poor record in Queens, Albot is no pushover and has made a living scrapping out victories on the ATP Tour.

He’ll make Draper earn every point and that could be a recipe for disaster for a player looking to fight off the rust after a lost season. I’m happy to play Albot on the moneyline here.

Six months ago, it looked as if Norrie was on his way to a monster year.

At that time, the 28-year-old was riding an 11-1 stretch and was fresh off a win over Alcaraz in the final of ATP Rio de Janeiro.

But since then, things have been going in the wrong direction for Norrie. Not only was he unceremoniously dumped by Christopher Eubanks in Round 2 of Wimbledon, but Norrie has gone 0-3 on North American hard courts since that defeat. 

Norrie could have really used a soft draw in the early rounds but instead he got the opposite. While Norrie will still be expected to beat Shevchenko, this does not have the look of a straightforward match for the former Wimbledon semifinalist.

Shevchenko is a promising young talent with a great serve and should be full of confidence after collecting a handful of impressive wins during the current North American hard-court swing. 

Although he retired in his last match, I’m willing to take the risk with a play on the Shevchenko moneyline as I think Norrie is absolutely worth trying to beat in this spot.