US Open Tennis 2016: TV Schedule, Picks for Saturday Afternoon Draw

The final afternoon of the U.S. Open's third round commences Saturday with a slew of top-ranked women hitting the court along with several contenders on the men's side.

Andy Murray is the headliner of the afternoon as he looks to strengthen his case as possibly the tournament's favorite. David Ferrer will also take on a resurgent Juan Martin del Potro in what could be the match of the day. 

Meanwhile, Serena Williams leads a women's slate featuring eight players ranked within the top 25. With so many big names potentially falling, Saturday looks to be a turning point in this tournament.

ESPN2 will air the action all afternoon from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m., with the night action continuing on the same channel until 11 p.m. Take a look below at the afternoon matchups, along with predictions and breakdown of the day's upcoming play.

Men's Singles
Women's Singles
Matchup	Court	Prediction
No. 2 Andy Murray vs. Paolo Lorenzi	Arthur Ashe Stadium	Murray in 3
No. 11 David Ferrer vs. Juan Martin del Potro	Louis Armstrong Stadium	Del Potro in 5
No. 8 Dominic Thiem vs. Pablo Carreno Busta	Grandstand	Thiem in 3
No. 22 Grigor Dimitrov vs. Joao Sousa	Court 17	Dimitrov in 4
Matchup	Court	Prediction
No. 5 Simona Halep vs. No. 31 Timea Babos	Arthur Ashe Stadium	Halep in 2
No. 1 Serena Williams vs. Johanna Larsson	Arthur Ashe Stadium	Williams in 2
No. 11 Carla Suarez Navarro vs. No. 19 Elena Vesnina	Louis Armstrong Stadium	Navarro in 3
No. 4 Agnieszka Radwanska vs. No. 25 Caroline Garcia	Louis Armstrong Stadium	Radwanska in 3
Ana Konjuh vs. Varvara Lepchenko	Grandstand	Lepchenko in 3
No. 10 Karolina Pliskova vs. No. 17 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova	Grandstand	Pliskova in 2
Yaroslava Shvedova vs. Shuai Zhang	Court 5	Zhang in 3

Saturday's full schedule with updated results can be found at USOpen.org. 

Murray has been phenomenal this season in Grand Slams, reaching the finals in the first two tournaments before capturing his second career Wimbledon title earlier in the summer. That play has continued at Flushing Meadows, where he has cruised through two rounds while looking dominant.

This puts him in serious contention to achieve some history, per ESPN Stats & Info:

Murray seems like a lock to reach the quarterfinals, with no real threatening opponents on the horizon until a possible matchup with Kei Nishikori in the quarterfinals. As long as Murray does not come out flat, he should easily advance past Paolo Lorenzi.

The same can be said for Murray's contending counterpart, Williams. She again is looking strong early on, and she has a favorable matchup with Johanna Larsson. Williams is 2-0 against Larsson with no sets lost, and the American has made it the fourth round in every U.S. Open she entered since 1999. Barring a monumental upset, there is no reason that will change Saturday. 

The match to watch on the men's side is between Ferrer and Del Potro. 

Ferrer is a mainstay in Grand Slams, routinely finding himself in the third round of majors. Yet he faces an opponent who is on a tear as of late.

At 6'6", Del Potro has terrorizing length and strength that allowed him to win the U.S. Open in 2009. Wrist injuries then slowed him down for the years following, but he rattled off a silver medal-winning performance at the Olympics, and he is fresh off a win over 19th-ranked Steve Johnson on Thursday.

The wrist injuries took some power out of his backhand, but, as tennis.com's Steve Tignor writes, now he has found a new way to utilize his length and keep opponents off balance:

"

His low, slow slice actually gave him more time to set up for a forehand and maneuver his opponents out of position, Tignor wrote. Now his two big weapons have to be more powerful and accurate than ever; quite often, especially at the Olympics in Rio last month, they have been.

"

This was on full display during his match with Johnson, as he was able to mix up hard and soft touches to put the American out of position, courtesy of the U.S. Open's Twitter feed:

Del Potro is great on hard surfaces, posting a stout 229-94 career mark. Ferrer has a solid 317-174 career record, but he is a mediocre 9-7 on the year. Riding his current wave of momentum, look for Del Potro to pull out a thriller Saturday.

For the women, Agnieszka Radwanska may be under the most pressure among the litany of top players facing off on Saturday.

As one of the best players in the world, Radwanska has never advanced past the fourth round at the U.S. Open in 10 tries. It is the only Grand Slam where this is the case, and she has a golden opportunity to break that curse with her current draw.

A win over 25th-ranked Caroline Garcia would set up Radwanska with a matchup against either Ana Konjuh or Varvara Lepchenko, a pair of unproven and unranked players. To get past Garcia, Radwanska will need to continue to not beat herself.

Per USOpen.org, Radwanska has only 13 unforced errors in two matches, which starkly contrasts Garcia's 80 thus far. Double-faults are the first place to look for this discrepancy, as Radwanska has one to Garcia's eight. 

Garcia's gluttony of unforced errors is asking for trouble, and so long as Radwanska can stay on her game and make simple plays, she should be able to advance into the fourth round and beyond.

Men's statistics are courtesy of ATPWorldTour.com. Women's statistics are courtesy of WTA.com unless otherwise noted.