Casper Ruud vs Gael Monfils Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Indian Wells

Prediction published on 12/03/2024, 05:21  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 13/03/2024 at 06:00 in ATP Indian Wells Prediction

Ninth seed Casper Ruud bids to reach the quarter finals at Indian Wells for the first time in his career. To do so he has to get past unseeded Gael Monfils in the fourth round of this Masters 1000 tournament. The winner will take on either 17th seed Tommy Paul or lucky loser Luca Nardi in the last eight. Ruud has been in excellent form on outdoor hard courts in recent weeks and that's the conditions for this tournament too. He's reached the final in his last two tournaments in Los Cabos and Acapulco and was eighth in the rankings when Indian Wells got underway. His good results have continued here with two victories over qualifier Lukas Klein and unseeded Arthur Fils without dropping a set. He's never beaten Monfils but their only match was played on a clay court six years ago.

Gael Monfils first played in this tournament in 2005 and has twice reached the quarter finals. The last year in which he managed to do that was in 2019. The Frenchman was ranked 54th when this tournament began. He's up to 47th in the live rankings and can rise to 38th if beating Ruud. That would keep alive his hopes of being seeded at Roland Garros this year. Monfils is also 47th in the ATP Live Race. This year has seen him reach one ATP Tour semi-final. That was in the recent outdoor hard court tournament held in Doha. In Indian Wells he's beaten Max Purcell in straight sets and then two seeded players. Round two saw him beat eighth seeded Hubert Hurkacz and that was followed by a win over 28th seed Cameron Norrie. Both went to three sets and Monfils had to come from behind to beat Norrie. Both players are in good form but we just prefer Ruud to get the win.