No. 24 seed Casper Ruud of Norway will take on Aussie Jordan Thompson in the first round of the Australian Open on Tuesday, February 9, with the match likely to begin at around 10 am local time (11 pm BST or 6 pm Eastern Time previous day). Get the live streaming options of this Casper Ruud v Jordan Thompson match along with its preview, head to head, and tips here.
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Casper Ruud v Jordan Thompson Head to Head
The 22-year-old Norwegian has a 1-0 lead over Thompson at the highest level, having beaten the 26-year-old Aussie at the French Open in 2018. The first-round match saw the Aussie fight back after losing the first two sets, but Ruud came back to win the decider.
Apart from that meeting in Paris, they also met at a lower-level hard-court event in Calgary in 2018, where Thompson rallied from a set down to win the semifinal contest.
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Ruud To Struggle on Hard Courts of Melbourne
22-year-old Casper Ruud, the first Norwegian to win an ATP title and to reach the semifinal of an ATP Masters 1000 event, will be playing in his third Australian Open, beginning with a first-round duel with Jordan Thompson on Tuesday.
Previously, the World No. 27 reached the second round in Melbourne in 2018, while in 2020, he was knocked out by Egor Gerasimov in the first round.
A clay court specialist, Ruud is coming off a successful 2020 season, when he won his first ATP title by beating Pedro Sousa in Buenos Aires in February. Two weeks later, the Norwegian reached another final in Santiago, but this time he finished runner up to Brazil’s Thiago Seyboth Wild.
Arguably his biggest achievement came later in the year, when he reached a maiden Masters 1000 semifinal, by defeating No. 8 Matteo Berrettini in the quarterfinal. His sensational run however came to an end after Novak Djokovic beat him in the final four.
Ruud, who lost to Jiri Vessely in the first round of the warm up event in Melbourne this week, has struggled to replicate his clay form on hard courts. While the 22-year-old has a 46-25 career record on clay, he is 16-27 on hard surfaces.
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Thompson To Take Inspiration from His U.S. Open Exploits
Having produced his best-ever result at a Grand Slam in the U.S. Open last year, Jordan Thompson will look to take that confidence into his home slam and begin well against the seeded Norwegian, who clearly doesn’t have a liking for hard courts.
Ranked 52nd in the world, Thompson who went 11-12 in singles last year, made it to the last 16 at Flushing Meadows. The Aussie defeated Stefano Travaglia, Egor Gerasimov and Mikhail Kukushkin in the first three rounds before falling to Borna Coric in the fourth round.
Earlier, Thompson’s best performance in majors was a third round finish at Roland Garros in 2019. At the Australian Open, Thompson has never won two matches in a row, reaching the second round in 2017, 2019 and 2020.
Last year, he beat Alexander Bublik in the first round in Melbourne before going down fighting to Fabio Fognini in a five-set thriller.
Thompson comes into the tournament with a 3-1 record this year. Beginning the season at the Great Ocean Road Open this week, he defeated Gianluca Mager, Pierre Hugues-Herbert and Mario Vilella Martinez in the first three rounds before falling to Thiago Monteiro in the quarterfinals.
Ruud v Thompson Prediction and Tip
While Ruud is the seeded player and also ranked higher than the Aussie, he doesn’t prefer the hard court and could struggle against Thompson on Tuesday.
Tip: Thompson to win: 10/11 (bet365)
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The 2021 Australian Open will be played from February 8 to 21. You can watch & bet on the these matches here. Get your latest premium tennis predictions here.
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