– This has been my big goal, Ruud beamed after the match. Ruud seemed to go against a decent saying. Then the Pole struck back, and Ruud was clearly frustrated. Before he managed to fight back and secure the quarter-final place. – Hubert has improved a lot on gravel since last year, and especially here when the sun is out and conditions are fast. – I did very well in the first two sets. He raised his game in the third, and then I had a bad serve game. – It looked a bit dark in the fourth set as well, but then I broke back a couple of times. Ruud was clearly the best in the first and second sets. But then the Pole got welded on the serves, and Ruud drove on the defensive. Hurkacz took the third set, and broke early in the fourth. Then it looked ugly. But Ruud struck back impressively, breaking the opponent twice and winning the set and the match. Ruud is therefore ready for a historic quarterfinal in a grand slam tournament. The Norwegian overcame the opponent in the first two sets and won 6-2 and 6-3. – This is a total elimination, said Doscovery commentator Christer Francke after the two sets. STRONG: Casper Ruud opened strongly, then lost his grip on the match, but impressed by striking back and winning the match Photo: GONZALO FUENTES / Reuters Frustrated Ruud: – What the f *** am I doing with the serve? But then the adversity increased for an increasingly frustrated Ruud. His serve became increasingly unstable – and at the position 1-1 in the fourth set he was broken. – What the hell am I doing on the serve, Casper Ruud said in the direction of dad Christian in the stands. At the same time, Hurkacz finally got used to his dreaded serve, and he won the set 6-3. Ruud broke the opponent’s first serve game and rented 2-0. The Pole broke back in the next game, but then Ruud broke once again. It even with 6-2 after three Ruud breaks. – This was convincing, said Discovery commentator Øyvind Sørvald. – But Hurkacz will definitely show himself from a better side later in the match, he added. He was supposed to be right, but there was little to suggest that in other sets. Ruud was clearly the best then too, and won 6-3. – Casper is over him right away, and plays smart. He controls the fight completely and has higher intensity. That was the plan, and he has carried it out completely, Sørvald said. Hurkacz hit back strongly But Ruud met much stronger resistance in the third set. There Hurkacz broke to lead 4-2 in Ruud’s third serve game, and Ruud was unable to break back. It still with 6-3 to the Pole. – He started to hit with the serve, and Casper was a little careful. Now the battle is on. Casper must come back and take command again, Sørvald said. But it did not look like that in the statrten on the fourth set. There Hurkacz continued to impress, breaking Ruud’s serve to 2-1. But this time Ruud hit back with a gong and broke to 2-2. That should be the turning point. He broke again to 4-2, and kept his nerves in check at the end. In the quarterfinals, Ruud will face either Danish Holger Rune or Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas. Casper Ruud has reached the fourth round of the Grand Slam once before, in the Australian Open in January last year. Today’s opponent, Hubert Huirkacz (25), is ranked number 13 in the world, five places behind Ruud. But at the start of this year’s season, he was in ninth place, partly due to a semi-final place at Wimbledon last year. But for both, the match was their debut in the fourth round on the gravel in Paris.
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Casper Ruud fought back and is ready for the historic quarterfinals – NRK Sport – Sports news, results and broadcast schedule
