Milos Raonic vs Rafael Nadal Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Indian Wells

Prediction published on 05/03/2024, 08:07  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 05/03/2024 at 09:08 in ATP Indian Wells Predictions

Rafael Nadal makes his return to tennis with this first round match at Indian Wells against Milos Raonic. Nadal has won this Masters 1000 outdoor hard court tournament on three occasions but not since 2013. For the winner of this match, the last 64 will see them up against the seventh seed Holger Rune. Both players went into the main draw on their protected ranking. Nadal is currently the world number 652 due to all his time off court due to injuries. This year has seen him play just three matches, all of them in January's Brisbane International. That hard court event saw him get straight sets wins over Dominic Thiem and Jason Kubler to reach the quarter finals. He won the first set against Jordan Thompson but lost the next two. Injury has seen him off the court now but he'll be keen to kick-start his season especially with the European clay court tournaments on the horizon.

Milos Raonic is at 224th in the rankings and has also had his fair share of injury lay-offs. 2024 has seen the Canadian play just two tournaments. The Australian Open saw him retire in the third set against Alex de Minaur after sharing the first two sets. His only other tournament was in Rotterdam where he won two matches before again having to retire, this time in his quarter final against Jannik Sinner. Raonic trails Nadal 8-2 in previous meetings with six of the losses being on an outdoor hard court. They last met in 2019 and it's seven years since Raonic last beat Nadal. We tip the legendary Spaniard to win this match.