The rise in the last twelve months of the 22-year-old Norwegian, Casper Ruud, who this season has won four trophies on the big circuit (Geneva, Bastad, Gstaad, Kitzbuhel), has entered the top 10 for the first time and reached the eighth final of the Australian Open, where he was stopped by Andrey Rublev.
Engaged this week at the ATP 250 in San Diego, California, Ruud edged former world number one Andy Murray 7-5, 6-4.
Ruud praises Murray
As revealed by the website We Love TennisCasper said of his opponent: “On the other side of the net there was a sports legend from the last decade.
What he has done in recent years, struggling to recover from a very serious injury, has also been a source of inspiration for me. For the last ten or fifteen years he has inspired viewers, because he struggles and always finds a way to never give up.
The last two seasons have been sad for him, but it’s good to see him again and I think he played at a great level today ”. Ruud will now face our Lorenzo Sonego, Internazionali di Roma semi-finalist, who in previous matches beat Nikoloz Basilashvili and Sebastian Korda without too many problems.
Ruud is currently the only Norwegian player among the 400 best players in the world, followed by Viktor Durasovic, ranked 402. The Norwegian Davis Cup team recently beat Uzbekistan 3-1, so they will now face Ukraine in the qualifying rounds of the first World Group.
Last year, the competition did not take place due to the Coronavirus pandemic, in 2019 it was won for the sixth time by Spain, which crashed against Canada in the final. Former ATP number one Roger Federer has made it known that he will only return to the circuit from 2022, due to a new knee surgery. Photo Credit: SportsMax
–
