The heroes of the last Majors got off to a poor start in Abu Dhabi and will now go head-to-head in the battle for third place. Casper Ruud has not yet won an official clash with Carlos Alcaraz, but the next one will be in the exhibition championship. The Norwegian was stronger than the Spaniard at the Hurlingham Grand Slam this summer. Do you think we should expect a repeat? The match will start on December 18 at 12:00.
Bookmaker Ratings: Prediction #1 – Handicap (+1) for Ruud – 1.76.
Bookmaker Ratings: Prediction #2 – Total Games Over 21 – 1.578.
Alcaraz Garfia showed in his match against Rublev that he is not at his best at the moment. The reason for this, most likely, is an abdominal injury, because of which the Spanish tennis player had to miss about a month. We believe that Ruud has a better chance of success in the upcoming meeting.
The tennis players have met three times this season and all three matches have been fought out. We believe that this encounter will also be a long fight, which is likely to last for three sets.
Ruud lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas (2-6, 2-6) on Saturday. It was his first match after the break and it showed that Casper is not yet in top form.
Casper took only four games, dropping both sets with a score of 2-6. All in all, a straightforward rout.
Just for comparison, Ruud took 59% of the points on the first ball and Tsitsipas took 90%.
The Greek was noticeably better in other respects too. Suffice it to say that Casper did not have a single break point.
In general, Casper was not ready to play against an opponent who had already played several matches before.
Ruud had won three times in the previous five matches at exhibitions.
The same could be said for Alcaraz, who lost with a bang to Andrey Rublev (2-6, 1-6).
Andrey only needed 59 minutes to beat the world #1. Carlos took only three games.
Alcaraz was not surprised at all. For the Spaniard, it was his first match after an unpleasant abdominal injury, due to which he missed the end of the season.
However, such an outright defeat still came as a surprise. Apparently, physically, the 19-year-old tennis player is still far from the optimum condition.
Alcaraz has lost three of his last five meetings with the top 10.
Type of Court – Indoor Hard
Speed of Court – 8/10
Casper Ruud’s Rating – 1
Casper Ruud Wins/Losses in 2022 – 57/16
Carlos Alcaraz Garfia’s Rating – 3
Carlos Alcaraz Garfia Wins/Losses in 2022 – 52/24
In 4 of Alcaraz Garfia’s last 5 matches, less than 9.5 games have been played in the first set. We offer to bet on “1st Set Games Under 9.5” with odds of 2.302.
Carlos Alcaraz Garfia leads with a score of 3-1 in the head-to-head encounters. The last time they met was at the US Open in September. In that match, Alcaraz defeated Ruud (6-4, 2-6, 7-6, 6-3) in four sets.
The match will be played in Center Court, Abu Dhabi International Tennis Complex, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
We recommend checking out the odds for the 2022 ATP Mudabala World Tennis Championship: Casper Ruud vs Carlos Alcaraz Garfia at 1xBet.