Matteo Arnaldi vs Casper Ruud Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Barcelona

Prediction published on 18/04/2024, 12:36  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 19/04/2024 at 01:20 in Tennis Predictions

After a run to the Monte Carlo final last week, Casper Ruud is going well in Barcelona. He's seeded third in this outdoor clay court tournament and takes on unseeded Matteo Arnaldi in the quarter-finals. The winner of this match will face either 12th-seed Cameron Norrie or Tomas Martin Etcheverry (seeded 13th) for a place in the final. Ruud is sixth in the live rankings and fourth in the ATP Race. Last week saw him in top form with wins over Novak Djokovic and Ugo Humbert before losing the Monte Carlo final to Stefanos Tsitisipas. His good form has continued in this ATP 500 event with only 12 games lost in his two matches. In the last round, he only dropped five games when beating 14th-seeded Jordan Thompson.

Matteo Arnaldi has only had one previous match against Casper Ruud and he beat him. That was last year on clay in Madrid with Arnaldi winning in straight sets. The Italian is up to 36th in the live rankings and in with a chance of being seeded at Roland Garros. This is his second quarter-final of the year but his first on clay. The other was in a hard court event held in Brisbane three months ago. He'd only played one clay court tournament before this week. That was in Monte Carlo and he lost in his first match to Sumit Nagal. It's gone much better this week with wins over Arthur Cazaux (who retired at 5-5 in the first set), eighth-seeded Sebastian Baez and qualifier Marco Trungelliti. Only one set has been dropped so far, the middle one against Baez in round two. It was a lot smoother in the last round with only three games dropped against Trungelliti, all in the first set. This is a lot tougher though and we tip Ruud to win in straight sets.