Fanfare for Casper Rudd ahead of the French Open: Stumbles in quarter-finals in Geneva

(Casper Rudd – Nicholas Jarry 6-3, 6-7, 5-7) Casper Rudd (24) made the best start, but was unable to beat Chilean Nicholas Jarry (27) in the quarter-finals of the Geneva Open. .

Thus, the Norwegian was eliminated from the ATP 250 tournament in which he was the champion twice, and Ruud won the VG + Sport broadcast clay tournament in both 2021 and 2022.

Ruud got off to the best start with a strong set and 6-3 in the match, but had to see himself defeated by the emaciated Chilean in a second-set tiebreak. There, he crushed Yari Rudd by the numbers 7-2.

In the last and decisive set, Jari put pressure on Ruud when he broke first, but the Norwegian responded with a break and tied it 4-4 after three break points.

But the Chilean had to break again and went up to 6-5, earning two match points. Rod saved the first, but couldn’t hold on to the second. Thus, it was 7-5 for Lyari and the exit of the 24-year-old Norwegian, who was unable to defend the title in Switzerland.

The Geneva Open was Ruud’s last test before the French Open Grand Slam kicks off on Sunday. The Norwegian will meet one of the qualifiers in the first round, and could face his Danish rival Holger Rohn again in a possible quarter-final.

Gary is 54th in the ATP rankings and met Ruud once earlier in his career before Thursday’s quarter-finals. At that time on hard court, where the Norwegian won in three sets.

The quarter-finals started somewhat earlier than expected after China’s Wu Yiping retired in the first set against Germany’s Alexander Zverev. The German will thus be Jari’s opponent in the semi-finals on Friday.

Zverev is now number 27 in the ATP rankings.

Ruud is the two-time defending champion in Geneva, but in 2019 it was Zverev who ran away with the title at the ATP 250 Championships in Switzerland. The German also won Olympic gold in 2021 when he beat Karen Khatsjanov in the final.