Casper Ruud vs Andrey Rublev Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Bastad Open

Prediction published on 22/07/2023, 13:30  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 22/07/2023 at 14:25 in Tennis Predictions

The top two seeds have made it through to the final of the Swedish Open. Top seeded Casper Ruud takes on the second seed Andrey Rublev in this outdoor clay court tournament. Ruud 's grass court nightmares are over for another year and he's been much more comfortable back on his favoured clay. Ruud will end this tournament ranked fourth in the world regardless of whether he wins his second title of the year. He's not so high in the ATP Race and is currently eighth on that list. Ruud has made it to this final without dropping a set in his three matches. The last four saw him defeat third seeded Lorenzo Musetti for the loss of eight games.  This is his seventh match against Rublev and he's only won two of the six previous matches. On clay, he's lost all three of his matches against Rublev, though the last was in Monte Carlo two years ago. Their most recent meetings have been in the 2021 and 2022 ATP Tour finals with Ruud winning both the indoor hard court matches.

Andrey Rublev is seventh in the rankings and sixth in the ATP Race. He'll move up to fourth in the latter rankings if winning this final. The Russian won the clay court Monte Carlo Masters in April and also reached the final in Banja Luka. He didn't get past the last 16 in his next three clay court tournaments and lost in round three at Roland Garros after winning the first two sets against Lorenzo Sonego. Rublev also had a good grass court season with a final in Halle and getting to the last eight at Wimbledon. Back on clay, the 25-year-old has only dropped one set on his way to this final. That was in the semi-finals when losing the middle set against fourth seeded Francisco Cerundolo. He's played three tie-breaks so far this week, including two in the match against Cerundolo. Another in this final wouldn't be a massive shock. This looks like being a tight match and we go for Ruud to get the win.