Familiar Foes

6-1 in the H2H for Ruud...

Ruud and Munar first faced off in the Santiago Challenger in 2016, 10 years ago! Ruud has dominated this matchup on clay, whereas the matches have been closer on hardcourt - also where Munar got his only win, in Tokyo. It makes sense in a way... Ruud can dominate more with his heavy forehand on clay, where it's harder to handle, whereas it's not as effective on hardcourt. They had a 5-setter in last year's Australian Open, and then shortly after, Ruud won in a deciding set tiebreak on indoor hardcourt in Dallas. With Munar's improvement on hardcourts since then, is this the time for him to come out victorious? They had two very different first rounds... Munar had to come back from 5-2 down in the fourth set against Svrcina, in a tricky matchup against a Counter Puncher, although one where he was expected to win rather comfortably (we saw how he struggled against a similar profile in Baez, in the United Cup). After a massive comeback (Svrcina was 1.01 odds live), Munar let out a huge roar - maybe a win like this will really inspire him for this upcoming match? As for Ruud, he was solid and did what he had to do in a quick beating of Mattia Bellucci, who is massively struggling for form. I really liked Ruud's performance against De Minaur in the United Cup; he was dictating and constructing points really nicely. I'm mentioning this because while Munar is not identical to ADM, they are both rally-tolerant players who move well! Can Ruud take control of the match and have an easier finish than in the last two?