Swiss Indoors 2024: Casper Ruud vs Roberto Bautista Agut preview, head-to-head, prediction, odds and pick
Match Details
Fixture: (2) Casper Ruud vs Roberto Bautista Agut
Date: October 22, 2024
Tournament: Basel Open 2024
Round: First-round (Round of 32)
Venue: St. Jakobshalle, Basel, Switzerland
Category: ATP 500
Surface: Hard-court (Indoor)
Prize Money: €2,385,100
Live Telecast: USA - Tennis Channel | UK - Sky Sports | Canada - TSN
Casper Ruud vs Roberto Bautista Agut preview
World No. 8 Casper Ruud will enter the 2024 Swiss Indoors as the second seed and is slated to begin his campaign against Spanish opponent Roberto Bautista Agut in the first round. The Norwegian enters this tournament after a quarterfinal loss at the Stockholm Open, where he lost 5-7, 6-7 (5) to Tallon Griekspoor.
Overall the former World No. 2 has had a good season in 2024, winning 49 out of the 69 matches he has played. Both his title wins came on the clay courts of Barcelona and Geneva. He also reached the final of the Monte-Carlo Masters and the semifinal of the French Open for a third consecutive year.
As far as hard courts are concerned, the Norwegian reached two finals on the surface this year, at Acapulco and Los Cabos, but lost to Alex de Minaur (4-6, 4-6) and Jordan Thompson (3-6, 6-7 (4) ), respectively.
Roberto Bautista Agut has a 24-19 record in 2024 and is entering the Swiss Indoors after a victorious campaign at the 2024 European Open. The 36-year-old Spaniard defeated the likes of Luca Van Asche, Tomas Martin Etcheverry, Felix Auger-Aliassime, and Hugo Gaston to advance to the final. In the summit clash, he won 7-5, 6-1 against Jiri Lehecka.
Barring the title run in Antwerp, Bautista Agut has not had much success in the season thus far. Before the title, his best hard-court result came at the Hong Kong Open, losing 4-6, 4-6 to Sebastian Ofner. The former World No. 9 had some decent results on the grass courts, reaching the quarterfinal of the Mallorca Championships and the fourth round at Wimbledon, before losing 2-6, 6-7 (3), 2-6 to Tommy Paul.
Casper Ruud vs Roberto Bautista Agut head-to-head
These two players have met three times before, with the Spaniard leading the head-to-head 2-1. However, in their last match in the Round of 16 at the 2022 Canadian Open, Ruud won 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4), 6-4.
Casper Ruud vs Roberto Bautista Agut odds
(Odds have been sourced from BetMGM)
Casper Ruud vs Roberto Bautista Agut prediction
Hard courts have been the second most successful surface for Ruud after clay. The Norwegian had one of his career highlights on the surface, when he reached the 2022 US Open final, losing to Carlos Alcaraz in four sets. Overall he has a 58 percent win record on the surface, reaching six finals with the only title coming at the 2021 San Diego Open.
Roberto Bautista Agut has been a prolific hardcourt player in his career. Out of his 23 career finals, 18 have come on hard courts with the Spaniard winning 9 titles. Before the European Open win last week, his last hard-court title on the Tour came at the 2022 Qatar Open, where he secured a 6-3, 6-4 win over Nicoloz Basilashvili.
His title run last week will give Bautista Agut great confidence going into the match, but it remains to be seen whether the Spaniard has recovered physically to mount another challenge in Basel. Therefore being the higher seed, Ruud will be the slight favorite.
Pick- Ruud to win in three sets