Second seed Carlos Alcaraz will continue his run in the Madrid Open by facing Andrey Rublev in the quarter-finals on Wednesday afternoon in what should be a tough match.
Strangely enough, this is just the second meeting between these top players where Alcaraz came out on top when they met in the Nitto ATP Finals (7-5, 6-2) last year. That was on indoor hard courts though so today will be a different story.
When? 1st May 2024 at 16.00 CET.
Alcaraz struggle against Struff
Carlos Alcaraz won his first two matches in Madrid rather easy, however it was much different against an in-form Jan-Lennard Struff yesterday. He ended up finally winning 6-3, 6-7, 7-6 after almost three hours and there were times in the match the Spaniard looked a bit uncomfortable, not at least in the deciding set.
We have to say Struff played great though and in the end Alcaraz got the job done. He has a superb history here in Madrid with two titles in -22 and -23. In fact the only player to beat him in the capital is Nadal…
Rublev back in form?
Andrey Rublev has not been the most consistent player as of late, since winning the Hong Kong title back in January, also with some other issues around the courts. This week has been great for him though, after loosing 4 matches in a row ahead of the tournament, and his confidence looks to be back.
Yesterday’s win against a strong opponent in Griekspoor was good to see and his first serve was fantastic.
Predictions
This is their first ever meeting on clay, it should be a tight game and the odds on Alcaraz at 1.25 (-400) are a bit on the low side. Rublev will most likely take many of his serve games and this time we’ll go for a hcp bet;
- Game Handicap, Rublev, Andrey (+4.5) at odds 1.60 | -175
