At least one of the top five seeds will have advanced to the quarter-finals of the National Bank Open. Norway’s Casper Ruud defeated Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut in three sets 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4) and 6-4 after a particularly long and tight match on Thursday at the center court of the IGA Stadium.
Posted at 4:52 p.m.
To tell the truth, this is the second time in as many years and participations in the Montreal tournament that Ruud reached the quarter-finals.
The 23-year-old had never had the upper hand over Bautista Agut before, with the two players having faced each other twice so far in their careers. Their duel was the first of the day on center court; it started at noon, but didn’t end until late afternoon.
The first run alone stretched over 1 hour and 13 minutes. With a break each in their pocket, Bautista Agut and Ruud had to fight for a tiebreaker. Perhaps nervous, the young Norwegian sent the ball into the net twice; the first round therefore went to his opponent.
But the 7e world racket had not said its last word. We had another tight round as possible. This time around, the Norwegian had the upper hand in long tiebreaker rallies, bringing both players back to square one.
Despite his 40 winning strokes, Casper Ruud had 29 unforced errors, against 21 for his opponent, when starting the final round. Final round which was quickly interrupted by driving rain, which forced everyone to leave the field for about thirty minutes.
On the return, Ruud had some difficulty returning his opponent’s serves, but was quick to regain his senses. At 2-2, he completed a break in service to the heartfelt cheers of the crowd.
While leading 5-3, Ruud missed three chances to close the books. The Spaniard refused to give up, even motioning for the crowd to make more noise. It was finally in the next game that Ruud managed to close the books.
Auger-Aliassime therefore remains the second favorite of the tournament, which will perhaps put a little less pressure on his shoulders.