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Horse Racing Friday's Tennis Best Bet: French Open, June 3rd
ATP French Open Best Bet:
Friday, June 3rd 2022, 16:30 UK Time
Finally starting to string some wins together, thanks to women’s World No. 1 Iga Swiatek, let’s see if we can make it three in a row on Friday, as the men’s semifinals take centre stage.
It’ll be Rafael Nadal and Alexander Zverev to lead things off, with Casper Ruud and Marin Cilic playing the final semifinal match of the 2022 French Open.
It’s the latter match that comes into focus for Friday’s selection. Backing the younger Ruud here is the position to take for a few reasons.
First, he spent about an hour less on court in his quarterfinal matchup than Cilic. Second, he’s a much more formidable foe than Andrey Rublev for the Croatian. He doesn’t lack the weapons that Rublev possesses – his serve is strong and his forehand is as potent (although more so because of spin, rather than pure pace).
He’s also more comfortable on the clay than Rublev. It’s his favourite surface and one he is most familiar with. All but one of his eight career titles has come on the dirt, and the primary difficulty for the Russian against Cilic in the last round was his ability to problem solve and find a way through the big-serving Cilic when he couldn’t simply use his serve-forehand combo.
That isn’t something Ruud will struggle with nearly as much, with his athleticism, point construction and spins.
Statistically, the gap between the Croat and his opposition in terms of clay court Elo rating jumps approximately 50 additional points, while the hold plus break percentage of Ruud over the last 52 weeks of clay court action is about seven points higher than Rublev’s as well.
Considering Ruud still possesses weapons in his own right, gets Cilic off a rather lengthy match, is the much better mover and is a step up in terms of comfort, problem-solving and returning on clay than Cilic’s previous opponent – who still took him to a fifth set super tiebreak – starting off at a handicap of just four games is a position worthy of taking.
- Selection: Ruud -4 games
- Odds: 1.89 (Marathon Bet)
- Stakes: 3/10
Get more tips for Ruud vs Cilic
Odds are valid as of 4:30 pm on 2nd June 2022. Odds may now differ.
