Ruud marches into Stockholm QFs

pa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/casper-ruud/rh16/overview'Casper Ruud/a marked his first appearance at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/stockholm/429/overview'BNP Paribas Nordic Open/a since 2019 with a hard-fought win Wednesday against a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/lorenzo-sonego/su87/overview'Lorenzo Sonego/a./p

pThe second seed was dialled in throughout the contest, prevailing 6-3, 7-6(3) to become the first Norwegian player to record a match win in Stockholm tournament history. Ruud, who is currently seventh in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, took another step towards qualification for the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/nitto-atp-finals/605/overview'Nitto ATP Finals/a./p

p“I haven’t won many matches lately, so this was a nice win,” said Ruud, who improved to 5-0 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series. “It was great to get my first win in Stockholm.”/p

blockquote class="twitter-tweet"p lang="en" dir="ltr"QF bound ????a href="https://twitter.com/CasperRuud98?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@CasperRuud98/a | a href="https://twitter.com/sthlm_open?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@sthlm_open/abr /| a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/bnpparibasnordicopen?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#bnpparibasnordicopen/a a href="https://t.co/TPpgfJ9jku"pic.twitter.com/TPpgfJ9jku/a/pmdash; ATP Tour (@atptour) a href="https://twitter.com/atptour/status/1846610954835857875?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"October 16, 2024/a/blockquote script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"/script

pRuud got off to a blistering start, winning 80 per cent (12/15) of points behind his first delivery in a 39-minute opening set, according to Infosys ATP Stats. Despite a second-set fightback from the Italian, Ruud held his nerve in a tie-break to advance to the quarter-finals./p

pThe 25-year-old will next face seventh seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/tallon-griekspoor/gj37/overview'Tallon Griekspoor/a, who edged past British qualifier a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jacob-fearnley/f0by/overview'Jacob Fearnley/a 7-6(0), 6-3./p

p“It’s going to be really tough, Tallon is a great player, especially indoors,” said Ruud. “He has big weapons, a big serve. I am just going to do my best.”/p

[ATP APP]

pEarlier, wild card a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/stan-wawrinka/w367/overview'Stan Wawrinka/a produced a vintage performance against sixth seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/brandon-nakashima/n0ae/overview'Brandon Nakashima/a to become the second oldest player to record a match win in tournament history (Phillips-Moore, 40, in 1997)./p

pThe 39-year-old was imperious in his service games en route to a 6-4, 6-4 victory over the American. Wawrinka will next face Spaniard a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alejandro-davidovich-fokina/dh50/overview'Alejandro Davidovich Fokina/a for a spot in the quarter-finals./p

pOn a day of Swiss success in the Swedish capital, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/dominic-stricker/s0la/overview'Dominic Stricker/a also claimed a statement triumph to upset a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/matteo-berrettini/bk40/overview'Matteo Berrettini/a 7-6(6), 6-4. The 22-year-old saved two set points in a thrilling first-set tie-break, before converting a crucial break in the tenth game of the second to seal victory./p

p[NEWSLETTER FORM]/p