How to bet Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Milos Raonic in U.S. Open first round match on Monday

Stefanos Tsitsipas could have done with a less complicated draw in Round 1 of the US Open. The sixth-favorite to lift the trophy at +4000, the Greek has endured an inconsistent summer going back to his uncompetitive loss to Carlos Alcaraz in the quarterfinals of the French Open and now has a tricky showdown with Milos Raonic on Monday in Flushing Meadows.

Although he’s well past his salad days, Raonic has been pretty impressive since returning from a two-year layoff because of injury issues. The Canadian has gone 4-3 and has wins over some decent opponents like Frances Tiafoe and Miomir Kecmanovic.

With Raonic showing some flashes of his vintage self and Tsitsipas in erratic form, this has the potential to be one of the best matches in Round 1 of the year’s final grand slam.

Tsitsipas is a -350 favorite to win the contest at the time of writing.

There have been some highs this season for Tsitsipas -- he was the runner-up at the Australian Open, won a title at Los Cabos and made the finals at the Barcelona Masters -- but there have also been some really frustrating lows for the polarizing 25-year-old.

And one of the common themes of those low moments has been that Tsitsipas has really struggled against big servers. He lost to Chris Eubanks as a favorite in the Round of 16 at Wimbledon, he fell to Nicolas Jarry in the second round of Halle and is coming off a defeat against Hubert Hurkacz in the Round of 16 at the Cincinnati Masters.

Those three players all pack serious power with their serve and gave Tsitsipas fits as he tried to get the ball back in play.

» READ MORE: Is the NHL futures market overrating the Flyers? There’s good value to be had betting on Philly to finish last.

When he was at the height of his powers, Raonic was one of the game’s biggest servers and it doesn’t seem like his long layoff has impacted that part of his toolkit too much.

As long as Raonic is on song with his serve he stands every chance of making this a tight contest and giving Tsitsipas plenty to think about. The price isn’t big enough on the Canadian to play him on the moneyline, but this match should have a couple of tiebreakers in it and that should help it go over 41.5 games.

» READ MORE: Full sports betting coverage from The Philadelphia Inquirer

The Inquirer is not an online gambling operator, or a gambling site. We provide this information about sports betting for entertainment purposes only.