Second-round action at the Rome Masters will wrap up on Saturday, when Carlos Alcaraz makes his tournament debut against fellow Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas. Daniil Medvedev faces Emil Ruusuvuori.
Albert Ramos-Vinolas vs. (2) Carlos Alcaraz
Alcaraz and Ramos-Vinolas will be going head-to-head for the fourth time in their careers and for the fourth time on clay when they clash in round two of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Saturday. All three of their previous meetings have gone Alcaraz’s way, but Ramos-Vinolas can nonetheless take confidence from the results. The left-hander pushed Alcaraz to a third-set tiebreaker at the 2020 Umag tournament and their 2022 French Open second-round match was a 6-1, 6-7(7), 5-7, 7-6(2), 6-4 thriller. In the latter contest, Ramos-Vinolas had a match point while serving at 5-4 in the fourth set and also led 3-0 in the fifth.
It’s unlikely, of course, that the 35-year-old gets so close to victory again in Rome. He did well to defeat Francesco Passaro 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 on Thursday, but he is still a horrendous 6-14 this season. Alcaraz, on the other hand, is 29-2 with clay-court titles in Buenos Aires, Barcelona, and Madrid in addition to an Indian Wells triumph. The 20-year-old already knows he will be No. 1 after Rome when he steps on the court, but he will want to regain that ranking in style. This should be one-way traffic for Alcaraz.
Pick: Alcaraz in 2
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Emil Ruusuvuori vs. (3) Daniil Medvedev
Ruusuvuori is already on his second life at the Rome Masters after escaping Ugo Humbert in round one. Humbert had two match points–including one on his own serve at 5-4 in the third set–only to see Ruusuvuori prevail 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(6). Thus continues a solid spring for the 43rd-ranked Finn, who reached the third round in Indian Wells, the quarterfinals in Miami, the third round in Barcelona, and extended Alcaraz to three sets in Madrid.
A great opportunity awaits Ruusuvuori on Saturday, as clay is obviously Medvedev’s worst surface. The third-ranked Russian lost to Aslan Karatsev in the Madrid fourth round and conditions at that event are far more favorable for him than those of Rome. In fact, Medvedev is a hopeless 0-3 lifetime at this tournament. The 27-year-old dominated their only previous matchup last fall on the indoor hard courts of Astana, but the tide could turn in Ruusuvuori’s favor given the surface change.
Pick: Ruusuvuori in 3
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who ya got?
I was at RG for the Alcaraz-ARV thriller last year ( I watched on the big screen….Ricky actually got in to Stadium 3 to see it live!)….but still, Carlos in 2….and Med in 2.