– He’s dangerous – VG

The 196 centimeter tall Italian has played his way to an eighth place in the world rankings with the serve as one of his relentless weapons. And in Saturday’s 3rd round match against three years younger Ruud, Berrettini sent off well-placed “bombs” with high frequency.

Ruud tried to even things up by sending a long ball towards the centrally placed strikers, but the visitors’ defense got the best of this rather direct style of play. It gave Berrettini revenge on the hard court in New York for Ruud’s French Open victory between the parties last year. Which means that the Norwegian is left with the third round as a preliminary best rating in a Grand Slam context.

– I think everything worked. I started strong and served well. This guy is dangerous. He can play very well. So I had to be ready. Today I was better than him, but I’m sure we will play many matches against each other in the future, says Berrettini in an interview shown on Eurosport.

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Tough opponent

With heavy absences on the list of participants such as Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Stan Wawrinka, Kei Nishikori and Nick Kyrgios, Ruud would have greater chances than usual to get far in the US Open, which is one of the tennis circus’ four biggest tournaments.

Ranked number 37 in the world, every match would be tough anyway, and Berrettini proved too good in this match.

– First and foremost, it has been a good tournament, even though it did not go well today. I can not be dissatisfied with a third round in a Grand Slam, and especially in the US Open. But I felt I had some chances here and there that I could not take care of, says Ruud to NTB.

Frustrated

Already in the first set, Berrettini showed class, including with eight serveess. The 24-year-old also broke Ruud in the Norwegian’s second serve game.

The winning percentage on the first serve was then 86 against 82 – in Berrettini’s favor. In the second set, Ruud occasionally played very good tennis, but again his Italian opponent was a little more skilled.

After winning the first two sets with the numbers 6-4, 6-4, the Italian, on the other hand, was completely superior in the third with a total of 52 “winners”. Then it was also clear that the frustration was great for Ruud.

– Berrettini can do exactly what he wants here. He steers Casper around in his own server game, commented Francke, before adding:

– But we must rejoice in how good Ruud actually is. He is in the third round of the US Open. A Norwegian has never been like this before. It is an enormously good achievement. We’re looking forward to what Casper has done.