Swiss Open: Casper Ruud vs. Dennis Novak 7/22/21 Tennis Prediction

Casper Ruud (3) meets Dennis Novak in the second round of the 2021 Swiss Open on Thursday, July 22nd, 2021.

Will Dennis Novak find some amazing form after having struggled a lot in 2021 with form as he has not done much, or will Casper Ruud show us the amazing tennis he showed in Nordea just last week where he won the title in the same conditions?

Dennis Novak put on a solid performance in the first round, beating an unknown player who got in to the tournament through a lucky loser spot. Novak won in 2 sets 6-4/6-4. Dennis knows he can compete with some very high ranked players when he is at his best, as he often trained with Dominic Thiem. However, injury and inconsistency has prevented him from building momentum in 2021. Dennis Novak will aim to play better in this second half of the year, but he needs to be ready to cause upsets against higher ranked opponents like Casper Ruud often.

Casper Ruud has been in superb form all year, especially on clay, where he has been able to go far into many tournaments, and he recently won the Nordea Open last week. Casper Ruud will want to keep this momentum going and rise off this wave to get another title under his belt in just 2 weeks. Casper Ruud has great movement, speed, power, and spin on clay and he can compete with anyone on this surface outside of Nadal and Djokovic I believe. Ruud will not want to ruin this momentum so he will come out ready to dominate.

This is going to be the 1^st meeting between both players, and Casper Ruud is going to dominate this matchup in my opinion. If this was late 2019 of early 2020, dennis was in some good form and he might have kept things close. However, in 2021 he has shown nothing to give me confidence in his game. Casper has been dominant all year and he will continue to dominate in tournaments, especially clay court tournaments. Casper is determined to make it 2 titles in 2 weeks and he will cruise against Novak.