While most eyes will be on the mouth-watering clash between Sinner and Alcaraz, we got a really interesting match-up in the other semi-final. Casper Ruud vs Alexander Zverev will be a tight affair where the bookies keep Zverev as slight favorite, something we’re looking to go against.
At the last years Roland Garros, Ruud overcame Zverev in the semifinals in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 in just over 2 hours. The German is playing better tennis at the moment though and he is looking for revenge, but can he do it?
Zverev historically struggled in Grand Slam semi’s
Zverev is of course coming from a title win in Rome and has been in fine form all throughout the French Open. There are many that think he can finally go all the way in a major.
He has been playing through some tough and intense matches though and it’s been close at times. Griekspoor messed up a 4-1 double-break lead in the last set and Holger Rune also could have done more in the final set against the German. I’m sure he’s quite happy that he managed to take out de Minaur in just 3 sets because he has quite a lot of hours on the court.
If you’re looking historically, he has actually struggled at this stage in Slams, with 1-6 in semi-final clashes.
Casper Ruud reached the semis through the walk-over win from an injured Djokovic and will be much rested for this match on Friday. Before that he outed strong American Taylor Fritz and Etcheverry in 4 sets without any huge issues along the way.
Like his opponent, he entered the tournament with a title win, with his Geneva win just before heading to the French capital.
The 25-year-old Norwegian is without doubt one of the absolute top players in the world on clay surface and will give everything for a third consecutive final in Paris. Just look at his 26-6 record on clay over the last year.
Predictions and Odds for Ruud vs Zverev
Ruud can surely make things uncomfortable for the German and he will use his strong overall play to mix things up, really testing Zverev, especially on his forehand side. Ruud will likely win a lot of the baseline exchanges and Zverev will rely a lot on his serve. I expect Zverev to show up in fine shape, even though he had some tough battles, but he needs to be more courageous in these stages of the tournaments.
Looking at the high level played in the French Open and previous clay tournaments, I give the Norwegian a slight edge here.
I’m betting on Casper Ruud to win this match, it might end up in a 5 set battle and I liked this combined bet on Ruud along with over 40.5 games at odds 3.77. I would also consider a possible live betting odds on Ruud depending on how the first set develops.
A straight moneyline bet on Ruud gives 2.05 | +105 while the odds on Zverev at the moment are 1.83 | -120.
