Spain’s Rafael Nadal, who is currently the 5th-ranked male tennis player in the world, meets 8th-ranked Casper Ruud of Norway in the men’s French Open singles final this Sunday, June 5th at Roland Garros in Paris France.
Nadal gave himself a 36th-birthday present with a final-four victory on June 3rd. He became the second-oldest male finalist in the history of the French Open after Alexander Zverev pulled out of their semifinal tilt in the second set due to an ankle injury. Nadal had downed top-ranked Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals and was in front of Zverev 7-6 (10-8), 6-6 when hip opponent suffered his injury.
With a win over Ruud on Sunday, Nadal would become the oldest men’s Grand Slam winner ever and will extend his French Open record to 14 titles. In fact, he’s never lost a French Open final as he’s currently 13-0. A victory would also give him a total of 22 Grand Slam titles to extend his world record.
Both Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic have 20 Grand Slam championships under their belt while Nadal won his 21st earlier this year by capturing the Australian Open in January. He’s also hoping to win the Australian and French Open in the same year for the first time in his career.
Ruud is the son of former tennis player Christian Ruud and was the first Norwegian to capture an ATP championship and the first to reach the final of an ATP Tour Masters 1000. With his recent win over Marin Cilic in four sets in the French Open semifinals, he’s now the first Norwegian to appear in a Grand Slam final. He reached a career-high world-ranking of seven in April, to surpass his father as the highest-ranked Norwegian tennis player ever.
To reach the final at Roland Garros this weekend, Ruud beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Emil Ruusuvuori, Lorenzo Sonego, Hubert Hurkacz, Holger Rune and Cilic. Ruud made it to the semifinals of this year’s Italian Open in May where he was beaten by Djokovic and then won the Geneva Title over Joao Sousa of Portugal just before the French Open.
Ruud is currently riding an 11-match winning streak and has been quite successful on clay courts since 2020 as he tops the Tour in match victories, titles and final appearances on clay surfaces with 66, 7 and 8 respectively.
Ruud previously trained in Spain at Nadal’s tennis academy and lists the Spanish star as his idol. However, this will be the first time Ruud and Nadal will be meeting on a tennis court.
There are also several other wagers to make on the men’s final at bet365 with some of the most popular being total games, set betting, total sets, first-set score, first-set winner, total aces, most aces, and double fault totals.