ATP Barcelona featured a loaded field of some of the best players in the world, but only two remain. No. 3 seed Casper Ruud squares off against No. 5 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in Sunday’s final, a rematch of last week’s Monte Carlo final. Both players are in terrific form. Can Tsitsipas claim another title?<\/p>\n
Head-to-Head<\/strong>: Ruud 2-3 Tsitsipas<\/p>\n Casper Ruud and Stefanos Tsitsipas have been two of the best clay-court players in the world over the past five years. They have shown that to begin the 2024 clay season. Ruud and Tsitsipas met in last week’s Monte Carlo Masters final, with the Greek besting the Norwegian 6-4, 6-1.<\/p>\n Ruud will look to avenge that loss on Sunday. The 25-year-old has taken down three top-40 players this week without dropping a set. He has been clinical on break-point saves and has continually shown that he is one of the best movers in the sport. Tsitsipas comes into this bout on a ten-match winning streak, though his path to the ATP Barcelona final has not featured a win over a top-40 player.<\/p>\n In their Monte Carlo meeting, Tsitsipas did not serve very well but was still able to cruise to victory comfortably. He saved 8\/8 break points and pounded forehands all over the court. If Ruud wants to avenge his loss, he must convert the break point opportunities the Greek affords him. I expect the Norwegian to look to go on the offensive in this match early and often. If he lets Tsitsipas dictate the pace, it could be another unfortunate final.<\/p>\n Both players come into this match with tremendous confidence. I do not believe Ruud will let the Monte Carlo loss seep into his play on Sunday. Unlike the Norwegian, Tsitsipas has had to come back from a set down in his previous two matches. Could fatigue be a factor in this match? Potentially, and I believe Ruud is in the perfect position to take advantage of it. I think Ruud survives a tight three-set battle to claim his first 500-level title.<\/p>\n Prediction: Ruud in 3<\/em><\/p>\n Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane – USA TODAY Sports<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ATP Barcelona featured a loaded field of some of the best players in the world, but only two remain. No. 3 seed Casper Ruud squares off against No. 5 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in Sunday’s final, a rematch of last week’s Monte Carlo final. Both players are in terrific form. Can Tsitsipas claim another title? ATP […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4067,"featured_media":57146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[904,5500,811,15415,304,15417,2373,2369],"class_list":["post-66368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","tag-atp-barcelona","tag-atp-barcelona-predictions","tag-casper-ruud","tag-casper-ruud-predictions","tag-stefanos-tsitsipas","tag-stefanos-tsitsipas-predictions","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions"],"modified_by":"Shane Black","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4067"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}