Casper Ruud Gets Off To A Rocky Start At Australian Open - UBITENNIS

Casper Ruud Gets Off To A Rocky Start At Australian Open

By Adam Addicott
3 Min Read
Casper Ruud - Foto Giampiero Sposito

Casper Ruud’s bid to win his first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open started with a hard-fought five-set roller-coaster victory on Sunday.

The Norweigan sixth seed was at times outplayed by his opponent Jaume Munar but battled back to win 6-3, 1-6, 7-5, 2-6, 6-1, after almost three-and-a-half hours of play. Ruud’s latest performance saw him hit 48 winners against 37 unforced errors and he won 65% of his service points. It is the 10th time in his career that he has won a match that has gone to five sets out of 16 played.

“It was just a really tough match,” Ruud said during his on-court interview.

“I know Jaume well because we are both practicing a lot at the Rafa Nadal academy in Mallorca. So, we practice a lot together.

“When you know someone quite well, it’s always tricky because he knows my game. I know his game and we are good friends also, so it can be a bit difficult and it showed today it was a tough match.

“I told him that I got a bit lucky in the end.

“I’m happy I stepped up and played some good points when I had to.”

Ruud has twice reached the final of the French Open and once at the US Open but is yet to have a breakthrough down under. Only once has he made it through to the last 16 of the tournament, which was in 2021. Last year, he was beaten in the third round by Cameron Norrie.

There is an extra incentive for the 26-year-old to improve on his record at Melbourne Park. If he reaches the quarter-finals or better, he would have gone deeper in the draw than his father and coach Christian. Christian reached the fourth round in 1997 before getting knocked out of the tournament by Goran Ivanisevic, who is at this year’s event coaching Elena Rybakina.

“Yes for sure but I have a better record in most of the other tournaments,” Ruud replied when asked if he has a rivalry with his father.

“So this is kind of the last one standing for him. I hope I can beat it one day, but I’m happy if he also has one record, at least in the family.

“He has inspired me a lot and I think without him, it would be very difficult to get to where I am today.

“I owe him a lot, and I have to thank him a lot because he always helped me along the way.”

Ruud will next play either former top 20 player Nikoloz Basilashvili or rising Czech star Jakub Mensik in the next round.

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