Ruud gets a second look at Borges, who beat him just over a week ago in Basel. The Portuguese came from a set down to win their fourth meeting 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, and the H2H sits at 2-2 heading into the last quarterfinal of the day in Paris.
Borges is here as a lucky loser. He lost the final round of qualifying to Molcan, but has not dropped a set since, with wins over Kouame, Khachanov and Buse 6-0, 6-2. Before Thursday he was 0-6 in Masters 1000 fourth rounds.
Ruud is 1-2 in his three previous Masters 1000 quarterfinals this year, with Rome, where he lost to Sinner in the final, the only one he came through. The Norwegian hasn't had the year you expect from a player of his class. But he's looked sharp in Paris, taking out Cerundolo, Jodar and Struff in straight sets.
Borges has played some of his best tennis this week and has shown he can hold a high level when the pressure is on his opponent. But when you take a closer look at his results on the season, he is just 5-11 against top-25 players, and two of those wins have come in the last eight days.
Ruud won the first set 6-1 in their last match, and I expect him to put Borges away completely this time.
Ruud vs Borges prediction: Ruud ML (-194) available at time of publishing.
