Milos Raonic Out to Crush ‘Cinderella’ Thomas Fabbiano at US Open

Thomas Fabbiano has made it to the main draw of a grand slam for the first time ever but the Italian is up against it in the US Open. His opponent today is Canadian powerhouse Milos Raonic. Al Dannity previews Raonic’s first outing in Flushing Meadows and the best of today’s other matches.

At 24 years old, Thomas Fabbiano has finally attained a dream for all tennis pros. The Italian makes his debut later today on the Louis Armstrong Stadium at Flushing Meadows. When you’re world #176, you don’t get onto a show court based on your name. It takes a big draw across the net to do that. That’s the challenge facing Fabbiano today as he squares off with Milos Raonic. Fabbiano has yet to play on the ATP Tour this season and has only two matches at tour level in his entire career. He lost both. To date he’s earned just $27,340 in 2013, his appearance today guarantees Fabbiano a further $32,000. Making the main draw is a big deal but it’s near impossible to see him hanging around. Raonic, who has enjoyed a strong summer, is 10th seed and eager to make the most of a favourable draw. I don’t expect this to last long.

Raonic won’t be the only Canadian looking to join Frank Dancevic in the second round. Dancevic overcame Robin Haase in four sets on Monday but Vasek Pospisil still has work to do. Pospisil took the first two sets against Rogerio Dutra Silva but dropped the third on a tie-breaker and trailed 4-0 in the fourth when play was stopped last night. Pospisil’s match is third up on Court 14 today and follows one of the more intriguing matches on today.

Lukasz Kubot has dreams of another deep run at a grand slam but the Pole, who reached the quarters at Wimbledon, has drawn savvy veteran Jarkko Nieminen. The Finn holds a 2-1 lead in their career series but all of those matches came before Kubot’s run at SW19 this summer. Kubot hasn’t been able to carry his Wimbledon form through to the hard court season but Nieminen’s game has been in the dump since May. A win for either man today would be a huge confidence boost and I like Kubot as the underdog to pull through.

Sergiy Stakhovsky will hope to finally rediscover the form that saw him shock Roger Federer at Wimbledon but he’s got a tough draw today. Jeremy Chardy is no world-beater but he has an excellent record against underdogs, with only one loss to a player ranked below him since Rome. That’s the type of consistency that’s needed early in a slam. Survive and advance.