Casper Ruud delivered great play when he beat the strong Russian Karen Khachyanov 2-1 in the 1st round of the ATP1000 tournament in Rome.
Karen Khachanov is ranked number 16 in the last ranking and is thus the highest ranked that Ruud has beaten in his career.
Casper took home the first set 6-3 after breaking the opponent’s serve once.
He managed to break up to 3-1 and did not give up the initiative. The Norwegian was good at varying his game with backhand and forehand and followed the tactic of letting the opponent run a little.
– There’s the breaker for Casper! Giant tennis – that was important, said Ola Bentzen in a commentary for Eurosport.
– Extremely strong
In the second set, it was the Russian who managed to break the opponent’s serve first. He went up to 3-1 after a couple of bad choices from the Norwegian side were fatal.
Ruud, on the other hand, managed to sharpen their game a few notches and managed to break back to 3-4 after securing three breakballs.
Khachanov was both skilled and somewhat lucky when he struck back and went up to 5-3 and was able to serve the home set after saving three breakballs.
In the decisive third set, Ruud managed to break early and went up to a 3-0 lead. Ruud also broke the Russian’s serve when he went up to 5-1. The Norwegian took home the set 6-1.
– Strong by our best man out on the gravel, the Eurosport commentator after the victory.
Dad: – Good shape
Casper is good at finding exits today. Khachanov is not weak, but in my eyes Casper is in better shape than the Russian, dad Christian Ruud explained after the match.
He was naturally well pleased with what he saw of his son in Rome.
The ATP1000 tournament in Rome is an important warm-up tournament before the French Open in Paris later in September.
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