A wild day at the US Open got even crazier at night when two -1500 or greater favorites fell in the first round.
Yes, you heard that right. Stefanos Tsitsipas (-2000) and Taylor Fritz (-2500) bowed out of the final Slam of the season with losses to Daniel Elahi Galan and Brandon Holt, respectively.
Daniel Elahi Galan (+1100) just beat Stefanos Tsitsipas at the US Open 6-0, 6-0, 3-6, 7-5 😳 pic.twitter.com/550Xr86U1q
— Action Network Tennis (@ActionNetTennis) August 30, 2022
Tsitsipas entered the tournament at +1200 to win the event, the fifth-shortest odds of any player.
He dropped the first 11 games of the match before rallying to take the third set. Tsitsipas then saved a near-double-digit amount of break points before Galan finally took the match as the fourth set winded down.
Fritz came in at +2500, but he was upended in four sets after taking the first.
Of course, the two upsets weren't the only major ones that took place on Monday: Simona Halep lost as a -1500 favorite against Daria Snigur, who defeated Halep in three sets.
Daria Snigur (+700) upsets Simona Halep 🤯
Snigur is currently ranked 124th in the world and just got her first WTA win ✅pic.twitter.com/G7HeI6WDuj
— Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) August 29, 2022
The one major favorite that didn't go down was Serena Williams (-345). Of course, she wasn't nearly as favored as Tsitsipas or Fritz to get past the first round, but the 23-time Slam champion took care of business on Arthur Ashe stadium while the chaos unfolded in the men's draw.
Daniil Medvedev, the men's favorite, was able to win his match as a whopping -4000 favorite against Stefan Kozlov, but if we learned anything on Monday it's that nothing is a given in tennis.
Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz, the second and third-favored players on the men's side of the action, respectively, will kick off their campaigns on Tuesday.
