Tennis Betting Tips: Sabalenka to inflict more US Open pain on Pegula

The matches are starting to slim down at the US Open as the tournament reaches the latter stages, but there's a semi-final in the Women's Singles, as well as action from Italy and Switzerland, in Thursday's Tennis Betting Tips, which you can check out below.

Combined in a treble, these three picks pay out at 3.43/1.

Set Betting - Luciano Darderi (ITA) 2-0 vs Dmitry Popko (KAZ) @ 4/9

Four days after losing 2-6, 4-6, 0-6 to World No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz in the US Open third round, Luciano Darderi was back in action at the Genoa Open Challenger in his homeland of Italy on Tuesday, beating compatriot Federico Arnaboldi 6-2, 6-4 in the first round.

Darderi, the tournament's number one seed, faces Russian-born, Kazakhstan player Dmitry Popko in the second round on Thursday, and should be confident of making it past his unseeded opponent, who had lost four of his previous five matches - and eight of his last 10 - before beating Marco Cecchinato 6-4, 6-2 in the opening round on Tuesday.

Popko is 231st in the ATP Live Rankings, while Darderi is up to 32nd after a strong last couple of months that saw him reach the third round of Wimbledon and the US Open, either side of titles at the Bastad Open and Umag Open in Sweden and Croatia, respectively.

This should be a straightforward victory for the 23-year-old, who beat Popko 6-3, 6-2 in their only previous meeting, also on clay, at the Oeiras Open in March 2022.

Match Betting - Simona Waltert (SUI) to beat Carson Branstine (CAN) @ 8/13

In the second round of the Montreux Challenger, Simona Waltert and Carson Branstine face off against each other for the first time. Waltert came from behind to beat fellow Swiss Valentina Ryser 5-7, 6-0, 6-4 in Tuesday's first round, while Canadian Branstine enjoyed a more comfortable 6-2, 7-5 victory over her Dutch counterpart Anouk Koevermans.

It's Waltert who is the favourite to progress on her home turf this Thursday, though, as the seventh seed, against the unseeded Branstine, who had lost her last four matches heading to the Swiss municipality and town of Montreux, which is on the shoreline of Lake Geneva.

Branstine, 183rd in the WTA Live Rankings, has lost six of her last nine clay-court matches, while Waltert, ranked 124th, has won five of her last nine, and 10 of her last 15, on this surface.

Seeded and on home territory, Waltert will be intent on making the latter stages of this tournament, and she should prove too strong for Branstine in the second round on Thursday.

Set Betting - Aryna Sabalenka (Wrl) 2-0 vs Jessica Pegula (USA) @ 9/10

Aryna Sabalenka will get the chance to add further gloss to her head-to-head record with Jessica Pegula on Thursday, when the two face off in the US Open semi-finals.

Sabalenka should be fresh for this final-four tie after her quarter-final opponent, Marketa Vondrousova, withdrew before their match on Tuesday, citing a knee injury.

Pegula, who defeated Barbora Krejcikova 6-3, 6-3 in her quarter-final on Tuesday, now gets the opportunity to exact revenge on the Belarusian for her 5-7, 5-7 loss to the World No. 1 in last year's US Open final.

That was the American's sixth defeat to Sabalenka, who made it 7-2  in the head-to-head with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over the 31-year-old in the Miami Open final in March this year. Pegula won their first-ever meeting at the Cincinnati Open in August 2020, triumphing 6-2, 2-6, 6-3, but has lost seven of her last eight matches against her, including the last three in a row - all on North American hard courts, and all in straight sets.

Remarkably, after a three-set contest in their first meeting, all subsequent eight matches have been decided in two sets.

Pegula will take confidence from her form this year in Flushing Meadows, where she hasn't dropped a set, but neither has Sabalenka, who has the mental and, most likely, physical edge, after last playing on Sunday, in a match that lasted just an hour and 14 minutes.

Sabalenka's power may prove too much for Pegula on Thursday, with another straight-sets win more than possible, and backable at 9/10.

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