Casper Ruud beat Marin Cilic 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 to reach the second round at the BNP Paribas Nordic Open in Stockolm.
Ruud held serve to love in four straight sets and won all 12 first serve points in the second set.
Cilic earned the first break in the second game and saved three break points in the fifth game to open up 4-1 lead. Ruud broke back in the seventh game and held serve at love in the eighth game to draw level to 4-4. Ruud earned three mini-breaks to race out to a 6-0 lead. Cilic pulled one of the breaks back for 1-6, but Ruud closed out the first set 7with another mini-break. Both players held on serve until the 10th game of the second set when Ruud sealed the win with a break of serve to improve his seasonal record to 14-3 iin opening rounds.
Ruud now leads 4-0 in his head-to-head matches against Cilic.
Ruud set up a quarter final against Sebastian Korda, who battled past Kamil Majchzrak 6-4 4-6 7-5 in 2 hours and 33 minutes. Korda earned his 100th hard court win becoming the fifth player brn in the 2000m to achieve this feat.
“It was a good match, I’m very happy. Marin is a great player, very aggressive. He got a better start than me, so I just tried to get my form and rhythm back into the match. I’m really happy with the win”, said Ruud.
Denis Shapovalov, Stockolm winner in 2019, overcame Leo Borg 6-2 5-7 6-1 to reach the quarter final at this tfor the fourth time in nine appearances.
Both players traded breaks in the first two games. Shapovalov won four consecutive to race out to a 5-1 lead. Borg saved four set points to hold serve at deuce in the seventh game. Shapovalov served out the first set 6-2 in the eighth game on his second set point.
Shapovalov broke serve in the seventh game and held serve to take a 5-3 lead. Borg came back by winning four consecutive games with two breaks to seal the second set 7-5 forcing the match to to the decider. Shapovalov broke three times to win the third set 6-1. Shapovalov will face either Jacob Fearnley or Swedish wild card Elias Yimer.
