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Match details
Fixture: (1) Carlos Alcaraz vs (7) Casper Ruud
Tournament: China Open 2023
Date: October 2, 2023
Round: Quarterfinals
Venue: National Tennis Center, Beijing, China
Category: ATP 500
Surface: Hard
Prize money: $3,633,875
Live telecast: USA - Tennis Channel | UK - Amazon Prime | Canada - TSN
Carlos Alcaraz vs Casper Ruud preview
Top seed Carlos Alcaraz will take on Casper Ruud in the quartefinals of the 2023 China Open on Monday, October 2. This will be their first meeting since last year's US Open final, where Alcaraz won 6-4, 2-6, 7-6, 6-3 to clinch his maiden Grand Slam crown.
Alcaraz, who is playing his first tournament since failing to defend his title in New York, has made a strong start to his campaign in Beijing. The Spaniard has made light work of Yannick Hanfmann and Lorenzo Mussetti, dropping just 11 games in his two encounters.
Playing against a fellow top-10 opponent, however, is likely to bring a fresh set of challenges in the next match for Alcaraz — who has gone 58-7 in terms of the season's win-loss.
Ruud, meanwhile, has had to toil hard during his time in Beijing. The Norwegian came through a tight two-set win over Jan-Lennard Struff, before being pushed to the brink by Tomas Martín Etcheverry — needing a deciding-set tiebreaker to come through.
Much like Alcaraz, Ruud also failed to recreate the magic from 12 months ago in New York. His overall win-loss for the season, 31-18, is also modest at best.
Carlos Alcaraz vs Casper Ruud head-to-head
Alcaraz has a 3-0 lead over Ruud in their head-to-head record. Besides the 2022 US Open final, Alcaraz defeated the Norwegian in Miami and Marbella in 2022 and 2021 respectively.
Carlos Alcaraz vs Casper Ruud odds
All odds are sourced from BETMGM.
Carlos Alcaraz vs Casper Ruud prediction
The quarter-final encounter will be a contest between two of the Tour's best forehands and fans can expect some fireworks from both players off that wing.
Carlos Alcaraz, however, holds an edge in most other departments. His serve, which was broken a couple of times early in the match against Yanfmann, has improved since. His return, however, has been the standout — as he won a whopping 67% and 62% of second serve return points in his last two matches.
That should be a particularly worrying stat for Ruud, who has rather attackable second serve. The Norwegian actually dropped his serve on more occasions than he broke his opponent's in the last match.
Ruud can put up a fight if he manages to get a high percentage of first serves in. But with the sort of form that Alcaraz has shown this week, the Norwegian could find himself on the backfoot in this one.
Prediction: Alcaraz to win in two tight sets
