Casper Ruud and Denis Shapovalov will meet in their careers for the third time on Sunday afternoon when they meet in the Dallas Open final. Ruud won both of his previous meetings; 7-6 (6), 6-4 in the Geneva title match in 2021 and 7-6 (7), 7-5 a year later in Rome.
Of course, Shapovalov has no reason to worry about these results. Both were clay and more than two years ago.
The 25-year-old should have a great chance to turn the tide in this. He struggled with injuries as well as his own game for most of 2023 and 2024, but it seems that things are turning. 54. Canadian Canadian wrapped last season with a title in Belgrade-Die in the Hard Courts in the interior-and plays incredible tennis in Dallas all week. Shapovalov booked his place in the final by defeating Miomir Kecmanovič, Taylor Fritz (in the third set of Tárbreaker), Tomas Machac and Tommy Paul. The quality of these victories cannot be overestimated.
It was a mixed bag for Ruuda in Dallas. The second deployed Norwegian was released around Michael Mmoha and Yoshihit Nishioka, but these results were inserted among the very tight three sets against James Duckworth and Jaume Munar. In fact, Munar even served for a match on Saturday before Ruud survived his semi -final thriller in the third spectrum.
Sunday match will be on the rocket Shapovalov. This is not always good news for the left, because sometimes it can be defeated by being an unforced machine, but in the autumn it has not been reached for Belgrade for some time. Shapovalov is on fire this week and there is no reason why he couldn’t twist the run stylishly.
Pick: Shapovalov in 3
