Casper Ruud vs Ilya Ivashka Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Miami

Prediction published on 23/03/2023, 11:07  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 24/03/2023 at 11:00 in Tennis Predictions

Will this be the tournament in which Casper Ruud reaches his first quarter final of the year? The third seed takes on unseeded Ilya Ivashka in the second round of the Miami Masters. Ruud may be fourth in the overall ranking list but that's due to his performances last year. A glance at the Live ATP Race that is based on points earned this year has him down at 101st at the time of writing this preview. This is his fifth singles tournament of the year and his best performance has been reaching the last 16 in Auckland (where he received a bye to that round) and Acapulco. His last tournament was in Indian Wells where he lost in the last 32 to Cristian Garin. This is a outdoor hard court event and Ruud is probably counting down the days to the beginning of the European clay court season but at least his form is improving.

Ilya Ivashka began this tournament ranked 80th in the world but he too has had a poor 2023 so far. In the Live ATP Race he's 203rd at present and was 60 places lower than that before the start of this Miami Masters. He lost his first five matches of the year and it was only at Indian Wells earlier this year that Ivashka got his first win. Ivashka beat Roman Safiullin and then Botic Van de Zandschulp (who retired in the second set after losing the first).  He then took the middle set off Daniil Medvedev before losing the final one 6-1. His return to form has continued in Miami with a first round win over qualifier Daniel Altmaier for the loss of only three games. The winner of this match takes on either 26th seed Botic Van de Zandschulp or unseeded Alexei Popyrin in the third round. Our prediction here is to go for over 21.5 games to be played.