Kevin Anderson is back at the US Open. Will he win his qualifying match Thursday?

After battling injuries for three years and then announcing his retirement in March of 2022, Kevin Anderson is back at one of his favorite venues and looking to qualify for the main draw of the US Open.

Anderson, who was a finalist at the 2017 US Open and was once ranked as the No. 5 player in the world, will take on 22-year-old Tomas Machac.

Machac enters the Thursday match as a slight favorite.

While Anderson’s rust is certainly a factor — he’s played just five matches since coming out of retirement — his results have actually been OK. Anderson won a pair of matches on the grass in Newport, took a set off Jordan Thompson in Washington and got through his first qualifying match on Tuesday without any issues. If he makes it to the main draw, Anderson’s lack of match fitness will become a problem, but qualifiers are best-of-3 and the 37-year-old still has a massive serve that will win him cheap points and keep him fresh against most opponents in this field.

Additionally, this is just the third hard-court match for Machac since March and even though he’s won three of the five, the quality of competition hasn’t been anything noteworthy and one of his defeats came at the hands of the World No. 307.

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At most tournaments the crowds for qualifiers are wanting, but fans show up for them at the US Open. The tickets are free and there are usually a couple of players like Anderson in the field that tennis die-hards will want to watch up close and personal. So even if it’s just a qualifying match, you can expect a decent turnout for this contest and it’s a pretty safe bet that Anderson will have some boisterous support from the crowd.

Even though there’s a rust risk with Anderson, his serve is a field-leveler and having the crowd behind him should help him in a match that projects closer to a coin flip than these odds suggest.

The Bet: Kevin Anderson +115

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