US Open advice

The US Open draw is out and once again the value bets lie in the womens tournament, where a very lopsided draw gives an excellent opportunity.

With Justine Henin, the Williams sisters, Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic all housed in the top half of the draw, it makes sense to make a dash for the exchanges and get on former champ, Svetlana Kuznetsova at around 40.

The Russian has a dream draw, with only Nadia Petrova of any note in her quarter and Sveta holds a 3-1 head-to-head record against her. Presuming Kuznetsova wins that one, she is seeded to face Maria Sharapova, (3-3 head-to-head) but it is far from certain that Sharapova will reach that stage bearing her recent injury problems in mind.

Sveta has had injury concerns of her own recently, but these fears have been allayed by her appearance in the Pilot Pen this week and the 50 that I managed to find on Betfair a couple of days ago is looking very attractive now.

At the head of the market, there are injury concerns over Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova and both Venus Williams and Justine Henin have won just one title each in eight starts.

There is nothing as seemingly straightforward about the men's market, but I'm sitting pretty with an ante post bet on Novak Djokovic at 36 from a month ago and I still believe he is the value even now at 10.

The young Serb has a tricky opener against Mario Ancic and then another difficult one awaits in the form of Radek Stepanek in the next round, but Djokovic did beat Roddick, Nadal and Federer to win the ATP Masters event in Montreal and these early tests may prove beneficial.

Elsewhere, Federer has his usual relaxed start, facing qualifiers in the first two rounds and then the likes of probably Nieminen or Isner, before Gasquet or Ferrero and then most likely Andy Roddick and some observers are calling that a difficult draw! Utter nonsense and Federer is guaranteed to reach the final with only Davydenko to add to the list above in the semi's.

I honestly cannot see a way that the likes of Roddick, Ferrero etc can take more than a set off the Swiss maestro at best, so given Federer's likely appearance in the championship match, it is worth an each-way bet on Djokovic to reach the final, where he will attempt to stop Federer becoming the first man to win four US Opens in a row since 1925.

There are some huge prices on Betfair about an upset, with the likes of Canas available at 420 and if an outside bet is your bag, then that might represent a bit of value, but I just can't see anyone bar Djokovic taking more than one set from the number one seed.