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Match details
Fixture: (4) Stefanos Tsitsipas vs (8) Casper Ruud
Date: 17 November 2021
Tournament: Nitto ATP Finals 2021
Round: Round robin (Green Group)
Venue: Turin, Italy
Category: Year-ending championships
Surface: Indoor Hardcourt
Prize money: $7,250,000
Match timing: Not before 9 pm local time, 8 pm GMT, 1.30 am IST
Live telecast: USA - Tennis Channel | UK - Amazon Prime Video
Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Casper Ruud preview
Fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas and eighth seed Casper Ruud will both look to notch up their first win of the 2021 ATP Finals when they lock horns on Wednesday.
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Tsitsipas entered the tournament under an injury cloud after being forced to retire from his second-round match at the Paris Masters. The Roland Garros runner-up admitted to having felt some pain in training, but did not reveal whether it bothered him during his loss to Andrey Rublev in his Turin opener.
The 2019 ATP Finals champion will have to bounce back from that defeat if he hopes to progress to the last four from the Green Group.
Casper Ruud, meanwhile, qualified for the prestigious year-ending championships, by virtue of a career-best season that saw him win five titles. He looked in fine form in his first round-robin match against Novak Djokovic, stretching the World No. 1 to a tiebreak in the first set before going down 7-6(4), 6-2.
Ruud will hope to show the same spirit when he takes the court against Tsitsipas.
Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Casper Ruud head-to-head
Stefanos Tsitsipas and Casper Ruud are locked at 1-1 in their head-to-head, having split their two meetings this year. While the Norwegian earned a 7-6(4), 6-4 win in their first-ever face-off at Madrid, Tsitsipas exacted revenge in Toronto with a 6-1, 6-4 win.
Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Casper Ruud prediction
While Casper Ruud is the lower-ranked player in this clash, he has every chance of pulling off the upset. Hampered by an arm injury, Stefanos Tsitsipas hasn't been at his best lately.
Although he refused to comment on whether the injury played a role in his straight-sets loss to Rublev, the former ATP Finals champion clearly didn't look his usual self.
Tsitsipas' returns lacked precision and he failed to earn a single break point on the Russian's serve. The only silver lining for the World No. 4 was his own serve, which produced 12 aces.
Ruud, on the other hand, looked confident and composed against Djokovic. Staying aggressive from the back of the court and hitting with pace, Ruud had Djokovic on the ropes in the first set before the Serb raised his own level. Ruud also managed to fire nine aces past the five-time champion.
If he can produce similar serving numbers against Tsitsipas, the Greek could be in trouble. Having already defeated the Monte-Carlo Masters champion once this year, Ruud will be keen to double up and secure his first-ever victory at the ATP Finals.
Prediction: Casper Ruud to win in three sets.
