Casper Ruud v Arthur Rinderknech Betting Tips [12 May 2023]
Tennis - ATP Rome
12 May 2023 14:00
The match
Fourth seed Casper Ruud will on Friday begin his Italian Open campaign with a second-round tie against unseeded Arthur Rinderknech on an outdoor clay court. Ruud defeated Rinderknech in straight sets on his way to lifting the 2021 Austrian Open and will hope for the same outcome here.. The Norwegian number one has this week lost 600 ranking points and though he still remains ranked fourth in the world, he will attempt to win those points back by prolonging his stay here. Ruud has had a shaky season so far, winning 11 and losing nine of the 20 matches he has played. Despite his struggles, he has been able to add to his trophy cabinet following his success in Estoril when he switched to clay for the season. He has however been unable to build on that momentum, and has lost three of his last five matches with the latest being an opening round defeat in Madrid.
Arthur Rinderknech is also struggling this season and has fared much worse than Ruud. He comes into this match on six wins and nine losses from 15 matches played. The Frenchman however started things off on a winning note in his debut appearance in Rome as he beat the qualifier Flavio Cobolli in straight sets in the first round. That match also marked his season debut on clay and allowed him to move up 13 places to number 76 in the live rankings. Rinderknech is a decent performer on clay and has won multiple titles in the ITF and Challenger Circuits on the surface and should be able to unsettle Ruud who is the favourite to progress. His highlight of the season remains to be the semifinal finish in the Challenger in Pau. This will be the second meeting between the two players and will see the winner advance to the third round to play either 28th seed Ben Shelton or the unseeded Alexander Bublik.
Key Statistics
- Ruud has six wins in nine matches played on clay this year
- Rinderknech has six losses in his last 10 matches
- Ruud has won six of his last 10 matches
- Ruud won the only meeting with Rinderknech, which was also on clay
- Rinderknech has lost nine of the 15 matches he has played so far in the season
The bet of our experts
Casper Ruud has had the most success of an inconsistent campaign on clay and having beaten Rinderknech before on the surface, he stands the better chance here but Rinderknech may pose him some problems, perhaps winning a set. We predict that Casper Ruud v Arthur Rinderknech will end in a win for Ruud after three sets.
