All eyes will be on Serena Williams once again when she takes the court at Arthur Ashe Stadium tonight.

After pulling off a dramatic upset win over the No. 2 ranked player in the world, the narrative surrounding Williams’ outlook has completely changed.

Williams is a -170 money line favourite at FanDuel for tonight’s third round match with Alja Tomljanovic.

Serena’s odds to win the US Open title have shifted all the way from +4800 pre-tournament to +1100 as the third choice to win it all at FanDuel right now.

Pre-tournament favourite Iga Swiatek (+230) and Carolina Garcia (+1000) are the only players with shorter odds to win the title.

Here’s the Morning Coffee for Friday, September 2nd, 2022.

Can Serena Do It Again Tonight?

Prior to the start of the US Open, I wrote about looking for a window to fade Williams based on a few factors.

The most obvious factor was the lack of form that Williams showed in the lead up to her final Grand Slam tournament. 

Additionally, I wondered whether Serena’s status as the greatest of all-time would impact how the public played her matches and lead to anybody who bet against her getting a better number than expected.

For each of her opponents, it would be an opportunity to go down in history as the player that handed the GOAT her final Grand Slam loss.

I shot my shot with Anett Kontaveit.

It didn’t work out for me.

As she has done so many times throughout her career, Williams rose to the occasion with another memorable performance in a three-set win.

With Tiger Woods leading the cheer, the Arthur Ashe crowd was absolutely electric again, which is something that clearly rattled Kontaveit in the final set, while giving Serena a bigger edge.

While I bet against Williams in what I considered a favourable match-up in the second round, I’m not nearly as inclined to bet on Tomljanovic to beat her in tonight’s match.

After a couple of impressive wins to start the tournament, a better match-up than when she faced her second-round opponent, and an electric crowd on her side, all of the momentum is behind Serena right now.

If this was any other event, in front of any other crowd, Tomljanovic might very well be the favourite to advance.

However, this is the US Open, and it’s Friday night, and it’s Serena Williams in what could be her final match.

I’ll bet Williams -2.5 games at -122 as my FanDuel Best Bet for the main event of the night.

Meanwhile, on the men’s side, Jack Draper looked very impressive in his straight sets win over Felix Auger-Aliassime. 

He’s a -150 money line favourite versus Karen Khachanov at FanDuel this morning.

I like Draper -1.5 games at -140 for today’s match.

Finally, I put together a three-leg parlay that includes Nick Kyrgios, Carlos Alcaraz and Liudmila Samsonova to all advance.

Alcaraz is considered the least likely of the three to advance, and he’s a -420 money line favourite versus Jenson Brooksby. 

It might not be pretty, but I think it gets us back in the win column.

Jazz Trade Mitchell To Cavaliers

After a summer filled with rumours and reports, the Utah Jazz finally pulled the trigger on a trade that sent Donovan Mitchell to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday. 

The Cavaliers went from +10000 to +3100 to win the NBA championship at FanDuel following the trade.

Cleveland went from +4200 to +1600 to win the Eastern Conference.

The Cavs went from +1000 to +360 to win the Central Division. 

Meanwhile, FanDuel also bumped up Cleveland’s season win total over/under from 42.5 to 45.5. 

The Cavaliers went from -130 to -310 to make the playoffs.

If you jumped on it early and managed to get Cleveland at +1000 to win its division then you have to be feeling pretty good about it this morning.

If you were late to the party reacting to the trade news, there’s no reason to force the issue looking at potential futures bets after FanDuel made some significant adjustments over the past 24 hours.

Strider’s NL Rookie Of The Year Odds On The Move

In Thursday’s column, I was all over the Atlanta Braves for the third day in a row with NL Rookie of the Year favourite Spencer Strider scheduled to start against the worst road team in baseball in the Colorado Rockies.

Strider certainly delivered with a ridiculous 16 strikeouts over eight shutout innings over which he allowed just two hits in a 3-0 win.

The 16 strikeouts are the most by any Braves pitcher since 1966. 

Strider’s odds to win NL Rookie of the Year went from -150 to -360 following his best performance of the season.

His teammate Michael Harris, who hit his 14th home run of the season in last night’s win, is the second choice to win NL Rookie of the Year at +270.

Meanwhile, Austin Riley went 2-for-4 with his 33rd home run of the season to cash the FanDuel Same Game Parlay recommendation I gave out in Thursday’s column.

Now it’s time to try to finish the week with some more winners.

First, let’s start with the Boston Red Sox facing Dallas Keuchel and the Texas Rangers.

The Red Sox and Rangers combined for 17 runs in last night’s series opener.

Now Texas has to turn to a starting pitcher that owns an 8.84 ERA in Keuchel, who just gave up seven earned runs in 5.1 innings in an 11-2 loss to the Detroit Tigers in his first start with his new club.

Xander Bogaerts went 2-for-4 with three runs in Thursday night’s game, and owns a .313 career batting average versus Keuchel. 

I like Bogaerts to record 2+ total bases at -105 at FanDuel.

I also like Alex Verdugo to record 2+ total bases at +100 and Rafael Devers to record 2+ total bases at -115. 

Meanwhile, Boston has scored 5+ runs in six of their past seven wins, and I think they have a good chance to go over that mark again tonight.

I’m already all in on the Red Sox hitters, so I’ll add Boston team total over 5 at -115 at FanDuel to my best bets for Friday.