Casper Ruud vs Marin Cilic Tips, Prediction & Live Stream - Ruud in danger of early exit in Stockholm

Ruud is currently 11th in the live ATP Race to Turin and realistically needs a title and 250 points to make up ground on some of his rivals, with the Norwegian currently trailing eighth-placed Lorenzo Musetti by nearly 1000 points. You get the feeling Ruud wouldn't be playing in Stockholm if not for the ATP Finals - he was last seen retiring in Shanghai and he hasn't got a great record at the tournament, winning just one match in three previous appearances in the Swedish city.

Meanwhile, Cilic is playing some decent tennis at the moment - it's taken Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic to eliminate him from his last two tournaments, while he scored a good straight sets win over rising youngster Nikolai Budkov Kjaer in his Stockholm opener. Cilic has taken a set off Ruud in their last two meetings and these indoor conditions should favour him in this matchup. I'll back the veteran to cover a +2.5 games line here.

Ruud leads 3-0, but this will be their first meeting since 2022, where Ruud prevailed in four sets in the French Open semi-finals.

Ruud has put together a 33-14 record on the season, but dropped out of the top 10 after failing to really make an impact outside of one big tournament.

Indeed, Ruud won his maiden Masters 1000 title in Madrid and followed it up with a quarter-final in Rome, but that's been about as good as it's got - along with a runner-up appearance in Dallas.

The Norwegian didn't go beyond the second round of a Grand Slam all year, losing in the second round of the US Open to Raphael Collignon.

Ruud had a decent start to the Asian swing in Tokyo, advancing to the semi-finals before going down to Carlos Alcaraz, but he retired in his Shanghai opener against Zizou Bergs, putting question marks over his fitness heading into Stockholm.

Cilic heads into this clash with a 7-11 record at tour-level this season and down at No. 92 in the world - however, he's shown glimpses of great tennis at stages.

The 37-year-old has a 2-3 record against top 10 players in 2025, defeating Alex de Minaur in Dubai and Jack Draper at Wimbledon, where he went on to reach the fourth round.

The Croatian also put in respectable performances against Sinner in Beijing and Djokovic in Shanghai during the Asian swing.

Maintaining his promising form, Cilic recorded a solid 7-5 6-3 victory over teenage phenom Nikolai Budkov Kjaer in his Stockholm first round. Surprisingly, this is the first time Cilic has ever competed at the Nordic Open throughout his illustrious career.