French Open betting tips: Nadal heading for 14th title in final showdown with Ruud
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Nadal v Ruud preview and odds: French Open betting tips:
Rafael Nadal is bidding for an astonishing 14th French Open title and record-extending 22nd grand slam when he takes on Casper Ruud in Sunday’s final at Roland Garros.
Nadal advanced to the championship match on Friday, the day of his 36th birthday, when semi-final opponent Alexander Zverev retired with a serious injury as the players headed into a second successive tie-break.
Ruud gave us a 29/20 winner when his semi-final with Marin Cilic went to four sets as predicted and he is the 19/5 underdog to win a first grand slam against the greatest clay-court player of all time.
We had a good day with our French Open betting tips in Saturday’s women’s final as world number one Iga Swiatek won in under 16.5 games at 11/4 and took the opening two games at 11/8.
Hopefully, we’ll have more success with Sunday’s match, which is live on Eurosport, in what will be a first career meeting between the players.
History behind Nadal
The Spaniard has won 111 of his 114 matches at Roland Garros and starts as the 2/11 favourite to regain his French Open crown after booking his spot in the final in unusual circumstances.
Nadal erased a 6-2 deficit in a pulsating opening-set tie-break and the players would have been involved in another had Zverev not rolled his ankle from deep behind the baseline which resulted in the third seed falling and crying out in pain.
The German had to leave the court in a wheelchair and later returned on crutches to shake the umpire’s hand and congratulate Nadal.
Nadal may not have liked winning that way but there must be a small part of him that felt relief he did not have to spend any more time on court in what was already an epic match lasting more than hours.
Having edged a five-set epic thriller against Felix Auger-Aliassime in the fourth round and then a brutal encounter with world number one and defending champion Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals, Nadal has spent 11 hours and 46 minutes on court in his last three matches alone.
Nadal also struggled under the closed roof of Philippe-Chatrier which created humid conditions that made the ball heavier from the moisture.
He said: “Physically I’m OK. Normally my problem is not the physical performance. Of course today the conditions have been very hot, super humid. I know from experience that when these conditions happen, I suffer a little bit more physically.
“When the ball is slow, conditions are very heavy with big humidity, then physically you suffer more than with dry conditions. My ball was not bouncing as usual here, no?” So with those conditions, I was not able to push him back. He was able to hit a clean ball all the time, so I was surviving. A lot of surviving moments during that match.”
Eighth seed Ruud has progressed in straight sets just once over the course of the fortnight and has won from behind three times, against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Lorenzo Songeo and Cilic.
Ruud has won seven of his eight titles on clay, including two this year in Buenos Aires and then in Geneva in the week before the French Open, so he is on a 10-match winning streak ahead of his clash with Nadal.
He said: “It was a great match from my side. I didn’t start the greatest but Marin also played very well in the first set. I was too defensive and then I was able to break him in the second set. That got me going a little bit. From that break I played some of my best tennis this year, serving well, super aggressive, so I’m super happy with the performance.”
If the roof is open as expected, Ruud could struggle to handle the high bounce generated by Nadal, but we suspect he still may sneak a set against his idol.
