Andrey Rublev vs Emil Ruusuvuori Prediction
Eighth seed Andrey Rublev will face Finland's Emil Ruusuvuori in the first round of the 2023 US Open. The match will be played on Tuesday, August 29, 2023.
Andrey Rublev did not have the best preparation coming to the 2023 US Open, and one man who was partly responsible is Emil Ruusuvuori. The Finnish No. 1 stunned Rublev at the Cincinnati Masters two weeks ago to earn his first win in three head-to-head meetings. That defeat could be damaging to Rublev's confidence and his title aspirations in New York. It extended his losing streak to three matches, which is a far cry from his excellent first half of the year. After winning the Nordea Open on clay in late July, it hasn't been the smooth transition to hard courts that he envisaged, and Rublev will totally rely on his experience to get through a tricky opening match.
Emil Ruusuvuori is a solid Top-100 player. He's been ranked as high as 37 but will play at the 2023 US Open whilst outside the world's Top 50. His victory over Andrey Rublev at the Western & Southern Open was his fourth against a Top-10 player in 17 matches, with three of them coming on hard courts. The Finn is a massive ball striker and has a penchant for fast surfaces. When balls land in his strike zone, it can be a nightmare to contend with his power. Let's see if he'll be able to shock Rublev for a second time in as many weeks.
Andrey Rublev looks to snap a three-match losing streak here. A quarterfinalist at the US Open last year, Rublev has beaten Ruusuvuori at Grand Slam level before - at this year's Australian Open in four sets. Both players will maximize their strengths as they are very comfortable taking the ball relatively early, so we won't have too many rallies in the match. Rublev lacked ground stroke accuracy in key moments during his defeat to Ruusuvuori in Cincinnati. His decision to play back-to-back clay-court tournaments after his sterling run at Wimbledon was certainly a miscalculation on his part. But we're backing the eighth seed to get that clarity of shotmaking right in this match.
