Having finally secured a maiden Miami Open presented by Itau triumph in his opening match this week, Casper Ruud returned to the court eager for more against Alexander Bublik on Sunday.
After coming through a tough three-set second-round win over Henri Laaksonen, Ruud showed no intention of hanging around under the Florida sun against Bublik as he raced to a 58-minute 6-3, 6-2 victory, improving his record for the 2022 season to 10-3.
Ruud has performed well at ATP Masters 1000 level before, but his greatest successes have come on clay. He reached the semi-finals in Rome in 2020, and Monte Carlo and Madrid in 2021, but his performance against Bublik was further evidence that his hard-court game is more than capable of taking him deep in Miami.
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After a late break clinched the opening set for the Norwegian, the second was a more straightforward affair. He raced into a 4-0 lead and never looked back, securing the win with his second match point to extend his ATP Head2Head series lead over Bublik to 4-1.
Bublik reached the quarter-finals in Miami last year and the Montpellier champion will be disappointed with this loss. As ever with the Kazakh, there was still fun to be had as he used his racquet handle to return a Ruud lob before finishing off the point late in the second set.
Ruud’s win was a story of dominant serving, The Norwegian denied Bublik a single break point in the match and the Infosys ATP Stats show Ruud won 85 per cent (28/33) of points behind his first serve. This gave the sixth seed the freedom to play loose and apply pressure on the Kazakh’s delivery, as he broke three times on his way to fourth round.
His opponent there will be the in-form Cameron Norrie, who defeated Hugo Gaston 6-3, 7-5 to also reach the fourth round in Miami for the first time. Ruud has won both the pair’s previous meetings, the most recent a three-set win at November’s Nitto ATP Finals.
from Tennis - ATP World Tour https://ift.tt/OE05Ibq
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