Men's US Open: Ferrer v Djokovic

Time doesn’t need to be wasted explaining why Novak Djokovic is nothing longer than 1/12 (Betfred) to reach another US Open final but his semi-final opponent David Ferrer is the last man on earth who would roll over and wait to be beaten. The underdog is a best price 13/8 (StanJames) just to win a set, and that looks like value.

The Spaniard is so firmly established as a top five player that it’s strange how little he is spoken off. Very much in the shadow of the star names of the game, Ferrer is perhaps the greatest fighter of them all. This will be his fourth Grand Slam semi-final, the third since 2011, and he is yet to progress beyond that point. You could say this is the biggest match of his career, so the motivation to succeed will be enormous.

Ferrer only trails Djokovic 5-8 in the head-to-heads although that owes much to his prowess on clay. But the 30-year-old will take heart from a hard court 6-3 6-1 victory over the Serbian last November in the ATP World Tour Finals. That would suggest he has a chance on the same surface at Flushing Meadows.

We don’t need Ferrer to pull off that sort of scoreline to win our wager though. He just needs to extend Djokovic to at least four sets, which should be well within his capabilities.