{"id":96285,"date":"2025-08-25T16:42:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T16:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/96285\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T16:42:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T16:42:10","slug":"martina-navratilova-and-tim-henman-pick-the-players-they-think-will-win-the-us-open-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/96285\/","title":{"rendered":"Martina Navratilova and Tim Henman pick the players they think will win the US Open this year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The US Open is officially underway, with a handful of high-profile names having already secured their spot in the second round.<\/p>\n

Tennis fans had mixed reactions to the US Open mixed doubles<\/a>, which kicked off the tournament during Fan Week.<\/p>\n

But the main draw action has now started in New York, with 2021 US Open<\/a> champion Emma Raducanu winning her first round match<\/a>.<\/p>\n

WTA Tour<\/a> number one Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> also made a winning start, as did home favourites Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka is out to defend her title from 2024, with ATP Tour<\/a> number one Jannik Sinner<\/a> in the same position.<\/p>\n

\"ArynaPhoto by Jamie Squire\/Getty ImagesMartina Navratilova and Tim Henman pick their US Open winners<\/p>\n

And the pair has featured prominently on a list of predicted US Open winners from many invested parties.<\/p>\n

Offering her picks for Sky Sports Tennis, tennis legend Martina Navratilova<\/a> opted for Iga Swiatek<\/a> and Carlos Alcaraz<\/a>, as well as picking Victoria Mboko as her wildcard.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Emma Raducanu gives her opinion on the US Open crowd for her first round match and says how it\u2019s different to Wimbledon<\/a><\/p>\n

And former British number one Tim Henman<\/a> has backed Sabalenka and Sinner to retain their titles, with Joao Fonseca named as his wildcard.<\/p>\n

Mboko won her maiden WTA title at the Canadian Open earlier this month, while Fonseca secured his in Buenos Aires earlier in the season.<\/p>\n

Defending champions Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka among US Open favourites<\/p>\n

Navratilova and Henman certainly weren\u2019t the only tennis icons to share their verdicts, with the duo joined by Marion Bartoli in their predictions.<\/p>\n

She chose Swiatek and Sinner as her winners, and also named Mboko as her wildcard after the 18-year-old\u2019s stunning victory over Naomi Osaka in Montreal.<\/p>\n

Other predictions involved Ryan Harrison, who has backed Sabalenka and Alcaraz for victory, and has named Frances Tiafoe as his wildcard.<\/p>\n

Both Sinner and Sabalenka played the role of the villain in 2024, defeating American players in their respective finals.<\/p>\n

The former beat Taylor Fritz, who had knocked out fellow American Frances Tiafoe in the previous round, while the latter overcame Jessica Pegula.<\/p>\n

American women have incidentally enjoyed superb Grand Slam success heading into the last major of 2025.<\/p>\n

Madison Keys and Coco Gauff won the Australian Open and French Open respectively, before Pole Swiatek won Wimbledon.<\/p>\n

But no such success has been enjoyed on the ATP Tour, with Sinner and Alcaraz sharing not only this year\u2019s Grand Slam titles, but last year\u2019s as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US Open is officially underway, with a handful of high-profile names having already secured their spot in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[6005,6733,49,48,619,616,615,3271,82,56260,2084,4306],"class_list":["post-96285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-aryna-sabalenka","tag-atp","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-carlos-alcaraz","tag-iga-swiatek","tag-jannik-sinner","tag-martina-navratilova","tag-sports","tag-tim-henman","tag-us-open","tag-wta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}