Alexandre Muller vs Casper Ruud Prediction & Picks - ATP Barcelona

Prediction published on 4/16/24, 7:46 AM  by Drew Williamson | Modified on 4/16/24 at 9:47 AM in Tennis Picks

The French player Alexandre Muller takes on a member of the top ten, the Norweigan Casper Ruud, in this Round of 16 match in the ATP 500 Tournament in Barcelona. Alexandre Muller won in his first round against the Spainard Albert Ramos-Vinolas, despite having a difficult, contested first set, but he finished the job expeditiously in the second set (final scores of 7-6 (7-4), 6-0). It was an interesting first round victory for the Frenchman, given that he had failed to progress beyond the qualifying rounds at the Monte-Carlo Masters 1000, losing to Luca Nardi, ranked 81st in the world. As recently as March, he had also been on a 4-match losing streak. For his part, Casper Ruud ended up as the 3rd seed in this tournament. He’s fresh off the Monte-Carlo tournament, where the Norwegian put in an exceptional performance. He recorded a superb 4-match winning streak by beating top 10 Hubert Hurkacz in the Round of 16, world No. 13 Ugo Humbert in the quarter-finals and, shocking nearly everyone, was able to stop world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals. After this incredible run up to being a finalist at this year's Masters 1000, he finally lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas. Though if this recent performance is any indication, he’ll arrive in Barcelona in top form and will certainly be aiming to go as far as he did in his previous tournament.