Casper Ruud earned one of the biggest wins of his career on Thursday, upsetting red-hot Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-6(4), 6-4 to reach the quarter-finals of the Mutua Madrid Open.
The Norwegian had previously been winless against top five opponents in the FedEx ATP Rankings. But the World No. 22 showed no fear against the fourth seed, earning the lone break of serve in the second set to triumph after one hour and 34 minutes.
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Ruud is into the quarter-finals of his third consecutive clay-court ATP Masters 1000 event. The 22-year-old made the semi-finals of last year’s International BNL d’Italia and this season’s Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters.
Tsitsipas is the leader in the FedEx ATP Race To Turin, having lifted his maiden Masters 1000 trophy in Monte-Carlo and reaching the final in Barcelona, where he held championship point against Rafael Nadal in the final before losing. But he was unable to overwhelm Ruud, who did not face a break point in his victory.
The Next Gen ATP Finals alumnus will have a chance to make the last four in the Caja Magica when he plays Alexander Bublik, who defeated 2021 breakthrough star Aslan Karatsev 6-4, 6-3 earlier in the day. The Norwegian won his only previous ATP Head2Head clash against Bublik in three sets in St. Petersburg two years ago.
from Tennis - ATP World Tour https://ift.tt/3tpVj4i
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