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Norwegian tennis sensation Casper Ruud has predicted the two teams that will go all the way to the final of the ongoing 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
The group stage of the quadrennial event has ended and 16 of the 32 original teams have advanced to the knockout stages, which start on Saturday, December 3. The teams that have made it to the Round of 16 are Argentina, Australia, France, Poland, England, Senegal, Japan, Croatia, Morocco, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Brazil, South Korea, Netherlands and USA.
That said, the 2022 French Open finalist Ruud took to social media to predict the finalists. According to him, two-time champions Argentina and Portugal, whose best performance was a third-place finish in 1966, will be the two teams left competing for the holy grail.
"Portugal vs Argentina for the final," Ruud wrote, adding a bunch of crossed fingers emoticons.
Casper Ruud recently visited Latin America alongside tennis legend Rafael Nadal on an exhibition tour. They faced each other five times over two weeks, with the Spaniard emerging victorious in Buenos Aires (Argentina), Bogota (Colombia), Belo Horizonte (Brazil), and Mexico. The Norwegian's only triumph came in Quito (Ecuador).
"I think one of the bigger goals next year is to go almost the whole year without facing too many injuries" - Casper Ruud
In a post-match press conference at the 2022 Nitto ATP Finals in Turin after his defeat to Novak Djokovic, Casper Ruud stated that it's always "refreshing" to start the new year in Australia.
The Norwegian said that his performances in 2022 will bring added attention next year and it's something he will have to deal with.
"Well, it's always refreshing to start a new year down in Australia. It's like the mentality of course is you want to do well, but you know this is just the beginning of a long year. Yeah, I'm probably going to have more eyes on me from next year on. That's something I'm going to just try to deal with and see how it goes," he said.
The 23-year-old continued by saying that one of his biggest goals for 2023 would be to avoid injuries over the entire calendar year.
"I think one of the bigger goals for me next year is going to try to - I know it won't be easy - but to go almost the whole year without facing too many injuries. This year in the beginning I faced a couple which sort of let me out of play for a little bit. Australian Open, I was not able to play," he added.
