Ruud resurfaces

After his scare against Safiullin, the Norwegian has bounced back!

Well, it’s a bit of a shame that Medjedovic was so reluctant to accept the fight (says the salty guy who had a bet on the over), but I have to admit some of Ruud’s phases of play were really impressive. As for Paul, he also didn’t face much resistance against Sonego, which allowed him to recover.

Even though we all see Ruud as the immediate favorite here (along with Zverev, he’s the best clay-courter behind Sinner), I’d like to think a bit about the match-up. Ruud is the typical clay player with a big loopy forehand that wears opponents down. But his baseline game alone isn’t enough, and he’s becoming more and more aggressive, especially with his serve and forehand. Paul, on the other hand, is a hard-court player who loves to attack, but who also knows how to tighten things up and adapt his game.

However, I find the American’s trajectories still a bit too flat. His final against Buse in Hamburg really highlighted his weaknesses as a clay-court player. In the third set he was trying to step into every loopy ball from Buse, defending at a steady rhythm… He totally has the tennis to adapt and lift more, but his DNA is too much that of a hard-court player. We also saw here last year how much he struggled, both in terms of tennis and physically. I link that to the fact that they’ve played three times in Grand Slams, and Ruud has won all three in the long run...