BNP Paribas Open: Casper Ruud vs. Roberto Carballes Baena 10/09/21 Tennis Prediction

World No.10, Casper Ruud, meets a fellow clay-court lover in Roberto Carballes Baena in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open on Saturday, October 9th, 2021.

Will we see a big upset by Roberto Carballes Baena as he aims to get a top 10 win under his belt and shock us here in Indian Wells, or will Casper Ruud show us his amazing tennis which has led him to the top of the title wins this year?

Roberto Carballes Baena fought through a tight opening round match, beating Renzo Olivo in 2 sets 7-5/7-5. Roberto is a great player on his day and he has beaten big names before like Denis Shapovalov. However, for a fair few months now, Roberto has only really been able to compete at his best at the Challenger Tour level where he has won titles this year. Roberto prefers playing on clay, so he is going to have to find some form which he has not had for a while on hard courts on the main ATP Tour.

Casper Ruud has been in superb form as always recently, reinforcing his top 10 position by winning the San Diego Open just last week. Casper is a great player, having won the most titles this year, winning 5. Casper also proved that it does not matter whether he is on clay or hard courts as he can compete at his best. Casper will be looking at the draw and he will know he has a very strong chance of going far here in Indian Wells if he continues to play at this level.

Both players have met each other before, 5 times before. Casper Ruud has had the upper hand against Roberto 4 of the 5 times they met. They have only ever met on clay and Casper has mostly dominated. Now that we are on hard courts, it goes even more in Caspers favour because Roberto is not very good in these conditions compared to the Norwegian. I might expect some tight moments at times, but it should still be quite an easy win for the San Diego Open Champion.