World No. 3 Daniil Medvedev will face Hungary’s Attila Balazs in the first round of the 2023 US Open. The match will be played on Tuesday, August 29, 2023.

After a third-round exit at the Australian Open and an embarrassing opening defeat to a qualifier at Roland Garros, Daniil Medvedev was more like himself at Wimbledon where he had his best Grand Slam result this season. The Russian went all the way to the semifinal where he was outclassed by eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz. Medvedev is one of the world’s top-performing players on hard courts, but even by his high standards, his performances in Toronto and Cincinnati were dire, leaving him in an extremely precarious position, confidence-wise, heading to the US Open. But it would take something of a catastrophe to lose his opening match to Attila Balazs.

Hungary’s Attila Balazs is not a Tour regular these days. In fact, he retired from the sport altogether in 2014 due to injury woes to pursue a career as a tennis coach. But that didn’t work out as he envisaged and he was soon on the courts contemplating his return as a player. Eventually, he made his comeback just a couple of years later and has predominantly featured on the lower rungs of men’s tennis. Balazs’ mounting injury problems continue to wreak havoc in his schedule. He has played just three ATP tournaments this year, last featuring in the qualifying rounds in Madrid. Since the start of the 2021 season, the Hungarian has played a jaw-dropping 15 matches.

Currently unranked, Attila Balazs enters this year’s US Open with a protected ranking, but this will be a harrowing experience for him coming up against a premier athlete on hard courts. Balazs’ last hardcourt match was two years ago. A look at the odds here and you can fully comprehend the magnitude of the task for the Hungarian. Some bookies are not even paying for Medvedev to win outright. Medvedev to win in straight sets here is the safest pick of the entire tournament at -833, but a slightly riskier pick is the under 24.5 games at -137.