French Open Men’s Final betting preview & top picks | June 5th

Rafael Nadal will be looking for his 14th French Open title this Sunday when he takes on Casper Ruud in the final. Here’s a preview of this matchup along with our French Open men’s final best bet at Roland Garros.

Casper Ruud vs Rafael Nadal betting preview

Rafael Nadal was in the midst of a tough 7-6, 6-6 battle with Alexander Zverev on Friday before Zverev suffered a serious ankle injury that forced him to retire from the semi-final match. It was an unfortunate circumstance that sent Nadal to his 14th French Open final, but the “King of Clay” will now have the opportunity to add another Grand Slam title to his already illustrious career. Nadal has never lost in the French Open final with a perfect 13-0 record when getting this far.

Casper Ruud dropped his first set against Marin Cilic in the semifinals before quickly bouncing back to win the match 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2. The 23-year-old will be making his first appearance in a Grand Slam final in this event. This will also be the first time that Ruud and Nadal have ever met in a competitive match. Ruud has established himself as a clay specialist early in his career as all but one of his eight career singles titles have come on clay.

Ruud has some good wins in the French Open this year over quality opponents in Hubert Hurkacz, Holger Rune and Marin Cilic. But with all due respect to those players, none of them are anywhere near the tier that Rafael Nadal is, especially on clay. Nadal’s match with Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinal felt like one in which the winner would go on to win the tournament, and not much has changed since then.

We wouldn’t bet on Nadal to win in straight sets here as Ruud has proven himself to be a strong competitor on clay that shouldn’t be dismissed outright. But as opposed to laying the heavy chalk on Nadal as a -520 favorite, we feel comfortable betting on Nadal to wrap this one up in four sets to lock in a better price for when he does so.

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