On Friday, the French Open semifinals will feature Casper Ruud and Alexander Zverev in the second semifinal matchup. Both players will look for a win here, that would set up a championship match against either Carlos Alcaraz or Novak Djokovic. In our tennis betting picks for Friday, we break down Casper Ruud vs Alexander Zverev in the semifinals from Roland Garros.

Why Bet on Casper Ruud:

Ruud is playing better tennis coming into this match, notching wins over Holger Rune and Nicolas Jarry in the last two rounds.

Zverev is the more error-prone player in this match, which will be a problem against such a rock-solid player like Ruud.

Zverev had trouble with Tomas Martin Etcheverry in the last round, as his level of play went through huge ups and downs throughout.

Casper Ruud

Casper Ruud was a slight favorite against Holger Rune in his last match, but played like the clearly superior player throughout their quarterfinal encounter. The Norwegian ran away with the first two sets of that match, winning in four sets to get to the semifinals. Now, Ruud will look to claim this Casper Ruud vs Alexander Zverev matchup to get to his second straight French Open final.

For Ruud, the goal in this match will be to continue to make Zverev hit extra balls. Zverev is one of the more error prone players at the highest levels of the sport today. If Ruud can play stellar defense and keep rallies neutral, he should be able to coax mistakes out of the German.

Alexander Zverev

It was not pretty, but Sascha Zverev managed to beat Tomas Martin Etcheverry to reach the semifinals of the French Open. Zverev has dropped two sets in this tournament, one against Etcheverry and one against Frances Tiafoe. But this match will be the toughest that the German has faced at Roland Garros since his injury that derailed him in last year’s tournament.

Zverev had 44 unforced errors against Etcheverry in four sets, averaging 11 per set against the Argentine. Against a player as solid as Ruud, those numbers could be his undoing as Zverev looks to reach his first French Open final and his first major final since the 2020 US Open.