The number four seed, Casper Ruud, will take on 142nd-ranked qualifier Elias Ymer in the first round at Roland Garros on Tuesday. The winner of this match will face either Alexander Bublik or Giulio Zeppieri in the next round. This is just the second encounter between these players. Ruud won the previous meeting on the hard court back in 2019 in three sets. The world number seven, Ruud, is at risk of losing a fair few spots in the world ranking if he’s unable to put a good run together here at Roland Garros. The two-time Grand Slam finalist in 2022 has largely failed to impress this season, currently holding an overall record of 16-11 and 11-5 on the clay. Despite earning the title in Estoril, the Norwegian crashed out early in Monte Carlo, Barcelona, and Geneva thereafter. In Rome, he reached the semi-final stages but looked far from his best through the tournament and eventually bowed out to Holger Rune. While his record for the season isn’t atrocious, it is notably down when compared to the standards he’s set over the past couple of years. He has enough quality to turn it around here in France, and with a favourable draw, a solid win for the Swede in this match could set him up well for the rest of the tournament.
Meanwhile, Elias Ymer pulled off an incredible win in his third qualifying match to beat 64th-ranked Yannick Hanfmann in straight sets. Hanfmann had slipped outside the top 100 on the cut-off date for direct qualifiers, but he was still heavily backed to reach the main draw. However, Ymer was not to be bullied by the higher-ranked player and managed to break Hanfmann five times in the match to claim the win. Up to this point, Ymer has done very little this season. He’s only made it to the main draw of an ATP event three times this season and is yet to get past the second round. Ymer’s record this season currently stands at 20-17 and 12-6 on the clay, though he has played a large chunk of the season on the Challenger circuit. While that win over Hanfmann would have done his confidence a world of good, he will find it difficult to overcome Ruud here, despite the Norwegian’s form issues.
While Ruud is evidently not at his absolute best, he should still have more than enough class to overcome this opponent fairly easily. We'll be adding this one to our accumulators. Our Elias Ymer v Casper Ruud prediction: Casper Ruud to win in straight sets.