Casper Ruud, who benefited most from Novak Djokovic's withdrawal, is a win away from reaching his third consecutive Roland Garros final. However, he'll need to go through Alexander Zverev, who earned a straight-set win over Alex de Minaur in the quarterfinals, to do it. Zverev is fresh off a title run in Rome, and many believe that he is ready to break through and win his first major. The problem for Zverev is that he has played a lot of physical matches in the last week, and Ruud should be able to take advantage of that. That’s part of the reason why I like Ruud to win this match.
Zverev’s match against de Minaur ended in straight sets, but it was still a very physical contest that took the German three hours and two minutes. Zverev has now been on the court for 11 hours and 34 minutes over his last three rounds. While he is in very good shape, that type of time is taxing on anybody. Now Zverev is playing a player that didn’t play at all in the quarters. Ruud hits one of the heaviest balls on tour, and he finds the court a lot. Zverev won’t be able to play this match without scrambling a ton.