Tennis Tips: Your 3 best bets for Nadal v Ruud French Open Final

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05 June 2022

Tennis Tips: Your 3 best bets for Nadal v Ruud French Open Final

*All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change

The king of clay is a title reserved for one man only, Rafa Nadal. The man from Mallorca, who turned 36 on Friday, is chasing his 14th title at Roland Garros and 22nd Grand Slam overall.

Nadal is fresh off a challenging match against Alexander Zverev that ended prematurely after a Zverev retirement. The conditions inside Phillipe Chatrier under a closed roof made it hot and humid and difficult for the world number 4, with the first two sets both going to tiebreaks, before Zverev rolled his ankle and had to be wheeled off court.

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Rafa commended Zverev for making it a tough, challenging match and we could have easily seen a hard fought five setter had Zverev not unfortunately had to exit early. Meanwhile, Norwegian 23-year-old Casper Ruud makes his debut in a Grand Slam final after a semi-final comeback, after he found himself down a set to Croatian Marin Cilic.

Ruud, a former student of the Rafa Nadal Academy in Mallorca, had a poor opening set against Cilic, but started forcing the ball into the corners and Cilic made 56 unforced errors to Ruud’s 21. Ruud also showcased his thunderous serve, hitting 16 aces and 0 double faults to become the furthest progressing Norwegian in Roland Garros’ 131-year history.

Sunday 2pm: Rafa Nadal v Casper Ruud
2022 French Open Men’s final
TV: Eurosport 1

Nadal will be grateful of some extra rest after his semi-final because Ruud is going to come out the gates bursting with energy as he faces his childhood idol. Ruud has showcased he could be a future heir to the clay throne, currently riding a 10-game win streak and 7 of his 8 ATP titles have come on this surface.

With Ruud wanting to showcase his ability against his hero, I think we can get a long first set, like Nadal’s opening set against Zverev, and I can see the total games going beyond 9.5.

Given all this, I suspect that Ruud can fight to get a set from Nadal, but ultimately the pedigree will come out on top. I fancy Nadal to Win 3-1.

Nadal, the firm favourite, has only lost 3 times at the French Open in 18 appearances, so I struggle to see the “Musketeers’ Cup” heading to anywhere but Mallorca for the 14th time come Sunday afternoon.

Expect the second set to be a dominating affair from either one of the players, as they either try to put the game to bed or claw back from losing the first set, 6-2 or 6-3 is my pick here.