Bet du Jour: Emil Ruusuvuori vs. Grigor Dimitrov, Roland Garros

While Dimitrov is a big favorite to win this match, there's not much separating these two players right now.

Published Jun 01, 2023

The Break: Who Are The Carota Boys?

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The Break: Who are the carota boys?

We’re looking for five wins in a row with on Bet du Jour, and our play for Thursday, June 1 has us rooting for Emil Ruusuvuori to give Grigor Dimitrov a run for his money. I’m backing Ruusuvuori to cover the 4.5-game spread, and I’m also sprinkling a half-unit on the Finnish youngster to win outright.

Ruusuvuori earned an impressive victory in the opening round of this event, beating Gregoire Barrere, 6-2, 6-7 (7), 5-7, 6-1, 6-4, in a four-hour thriller. Barrere is a talented player that had the full support of the French crowd, but Ruusuvuori was able to pull it out. Now, I think the 24-year-old is battle-tested and ready to push Dimitrov to the limit.

Dimitrov is obviously a very talented player, but he isn’t a blue-chip favorite. His game is prone to breaking down at any given moment, and he isn’t exactly the strongest player mentally. Dimitrov can struggle to close out matches and he also plays with his food quite a bit. With that in mind, Ruusuvuori should be able to rattle him with his ability to hit for power and cover the court. Not many players possess the ability to glide around on the clay while also ripping shots from the baseline, but Ruusuvuori absolutely does. That makes him a legitimate threat to continue doing damage at this tournament.

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Ruusuvuori will have a much easier time holding than the Bulgarian, and that makes him a very live ‘dog.

If Ruusuvuori can do a solid job as a returner in this match, he should be in until the very end. And the slow courts should allow him to do that. It has been very tough for players to hold serve this week, and Dimitrov doesn’t have the most dominant serve to begin with. That was actually what stood out to me when I first saw this line. I think Ruusuvuori will have a much easier time holding than the Bulgarian, and that makes him a very live ‘dog.

Ruusuvuori has also just been right on par with Dimitrov since the start of the 2023 season. While Dimitrov is ranked higher than Ruusuvuori, the Bulgarian is just this year. Meanwhile, Ruusuvuori is 16-14 and won more matches than Dimitrov over the three-tournament span in which the two played Barcelona, Madrid and Rome. Overall, I just don’t think there’s a huge gap between these two right now, so I think the oddsmakers mispriced this.

Bet: Ruusuvuori +4.5 Games (-115) / Ruusuvuori ML (+185 - 0.5 units)

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