Tennis Now published an interesting video at their Youtube account. In the short clip Grace Carter reviewed "5 players not named Federer or Nadal that could win the 2017 Us Open" (August 22nd). After speaking about all of the injured players near the top of the men's game Tennis Now seems to discount Andy Murray as he did not make their list of five despite not being named Rafael Nadal or Roger Federer. The players that did make their list, in order, were Alexander Zverev, Grigor Dimitrov, Nick Kyrgios, Juan Martin del Potro, and Sam Querrey. With that list, Tennis Now has pretty much has things spot on with the exception of del Potro.
del Potro playing level is too low
Del Potro is playing at too low of a level right now to put any kind of dent in the 2017 US Open draw that's significant. His ranking right now is just 28th in the world and his record is only 18-11 on the season. He is nowhere near the playing level that he was at last year when he won the silver medal in Rio. He has recent losses to Dimitrov, Denis Shapovalov, Ernests Gulbis, and Gastao Ellis, not to mention others. That del Potro won't crumble mentally in big matches is clear and that puts him ahead of the other players that Tennis Now mentions. But he was so much better this time last year and yet he only made the quarterfinals at the 2016 US Open. Playing worse now than he was then he should be expected to fall in the fourth or earlier.
If you were to look for a fifth player not named Federer or Nadal then it's certainly tough given all the recent injuries. Who knows where Murray's game is with his hip and where Marin Cilic's health is at following the tournaments that he has missed.
Berdych and Anderson might be dangerous
Tomas Berdych and Kevin Anderson are players that jump out as dangerous for Flushing Meadows.
However Berdy pulled out of the Rogers Cup and didn't do anything significant in Cincinnati. Anderson was in the Washington final a few weeks back and followed it up with solid play in Montreal. However he pulled out of Winston-Salem this week with an elbow injury.
If you're looking for a hot player with no injury buzz, then David Ferrer is the man.
He won a title back in July, one that some will be quick to point out was only on clay. However he was also deep in the Cincinnati draw last week showing that he's still meant for more than one surface. Ferrer is up there for age, but his fitness is incredible. He will likely be more into the tournament than del Potro, a player whose forehand isn't what it used to be and one that sometimes seems a little resigned now. That doesn't mean that Ferrer has more pure talent than del Potro, but Grand Slam contention is more about being the man of the moment than anything else. Ferrer has proven a lot post-Wimbledon and fans shouldn't be surprise to see him in the quarterfinals of Flushing Meadows.
