Casper Ruud continued his poor form when he lost Wednesday’s match to French qualifier Benjamin Bonzi in Metz. Ruud lost with the numbers 4-6, 4-6. The 25-year-old from Snarøya thus stands with nine losses in his last eleven matches. Wednesday’s match was Ruud’s first in the ATP250 tournament in Metz. Ruud and Bonzi had never before met in a match. Bonzi is number 124 in the ATP ranking, while Ruud is in 7th place. The first set was even until Bonzi broke Ruud’s fourth service game. The Frenchman also had the opportunity to win the set already at 5-3, but Ruud recovered and avoided another break. However, it had little to say when Bonzi served the set to 6-4 without much resistance from Ruud. And it got worse for the Norwegian when Bonzi opened the second set by breaking Ruud’s first service game. Unfortunately for Ruud, it was the last break of the match, and he thus had to state that he has once again been knocked out in his first match in a tournament. 28-year-old Bonzi had to play qualification to join the tournament. He surprised on Tuesday by knocking out Spanish Roberto Bautista-Agut (36) in straight sets in the 1st round. The tournament in France is the last before the ATP playoffs in Turin. There, Ruud is already qualified as Novak Djokovic has announced his retirement. Ruud was unsure earlier in the week whether he would participate in the Metz tournament, which was not in his original plans. – If I have to go to Metz, I will travel there. If you have to do well there to get to Turin, then you have to show up, Ruud told NTB after the loss in the Paris Masters.
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