The Wimbledon tournament proved that Iga Swiatek has not yet figured out grass, but as we approach the North American summer hardcourt season, we return to one of the two surfaces where the World No. 1 has fully established herself. Let\u2019s provide an early look at U.S. Open favorites and longshots for 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Favorite: Iga Swiatek<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The favorite for the 2022 U.S. Open women\u2019s tournament will be Swiatek. Sure, Ons Jabeur will be a popular pick for some, given that she has risen to No. 2 in the world, but remember this: Jabeur flamed out early at the French Open and has not made the semifinals of a hardcourt major tournament, either the Australian Open or the U.S. Open. Jabeur reached the final at Wimbledon on grass, the surface Swiatek hasn\u2019t yet solved. On hardcourts, there\u2019s really no comparison. Swiatek has the obvious advantage over Jabeur in a one-on-one comparison. Swiatek\u2019s hardcourt credentials are already substantial, given her ability to win the Sunshine Double of Indian Wells and Miami this past March. At Wimbledon, Swiatek was not the clear favorite because grass is still a mystery for her. On hardcourts in New York at the USTA National Tennis Center, Swiatek is the obvious No. 1 choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Favorite: Aryna Sabalenka<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The really interesting debate at the U.S. Open women\u2019s tournament is not who\u2019s the top choice, but who is the No. 2 choice behind Swiatek. The best answer might be Sabalenka, who made the semifinals of last year\u2019s U.S. Open before losing to Leylah Fernandez. Sabalenka is one of several Belarusian or Russian players banned from Wimbledon. That ban from Wimbledon was widely seen as unfair, but it had the benefit of giving those players extra rest and recuperation time while the rest of the tour played at Wimbledon. Sabalenka will be motivated at the U.S. Open, but more importantly, she will be physically fresh. Lots of players are tired when they get to New York, but Sabalenka should have a full fuel tank which will help her on the surface where she generally plays her best tennis. This tournament should set up well for her, presuming she is healthy heading into the Big Apple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Longshot: Madison Keys<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The American will not be a top-10 seed at the U.S. Open, but she is a former U.S. Open finalist (2017) who has made multiple major semifinals and has reached the U.S. Open semifinals multiple times as well. She always gets great crowd support in New York and has shown she can go deep into the second week of this particular tournament. She is a player who can come into the U.S. Open under the radar but can catch fire and become a legitimate threat to win the title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Longshot: Sloane Stephens<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The woman who defeated Keys in the 2017 U.S. Open final is another player who can struggle for months and then raise her game at the majors. Stephens\u2019 best major is the French Open. That\u2019s where she has made the fourth round or better the most times. She reached the quarterfinals this year before losing to eventual runner-up Coco Gauff. Yet, the U.S. Open is where Stephens reached the pinnacle of her career. She has reached the quarterfinals at this tournament in years other than 2017 when she went all the way. She is still capable of getting on a roll, and her French Open earlier this year was a reminder to herself that she can still bring her A-game when it counts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Wimbledon tournament proved that Iga Swiatek has not yet figured out grass, but as we approach the North American…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":8655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[144],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tennis"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23256"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23262,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23256\/revisions\/23262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}