Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Casper Ruud Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Barcelona

Prediction published on 20/04/2024, 13:53  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 21/04/2024 at 02:00 in Tennis Predictions

For the second Sunday in a row, Stefanos Tsitisipas and Casper Ruud meet in a clay court final. Last week saw Tsitsipas win the Monte Carlo Masters, now the pair face each other in the Barcelona Open title decider. Just as was the case last week, Ruud is the highest seeded player. He's the third seed, while Tsitsipas is seeded two places lower than him. Ruud is sixth in the live world rankings but can't climb any higher even if winning this title. His sixth place is safe though but if he wins, Tsitsipas will be right behind him in seventh. To reach this final, Ruud has had four straight sets victories with two seeded players beaten. The 14th-seeded Jordan Thompson only took five games off him and in the last four, Tomas Martin Etcheverry (seeded 13th) was beaten 7-6 6-4.

Stefanos Tsitsipas won last week's match for the loss of only five games. He now leads Ruud 3-2 in previous meetings and 2-1 on clay. He had a tougher match in the semi-finals of this Barcelona Open needing to go to three sets to beat unseeded Dusan Lajovic. The first set was lost but the next two were won with only six games lost. That was his second successive three-set match. Friday saw him defeat unseeded Facundo Diaz Acosta, again needing to come from a set down.  Before that he'd had two straight sets wins over Sebastian Ofner and recent Marrakech title winner Roberto Carballes Baena. He seems to be in the better form of the two and we tip him to again beat Ruud.