PARIS (Reuters) – Eighth seed Casper Ruud reached his maiden Grand Slam quarter-final when he downed Hubert Hurkacz 6-2 6-3 3-6 6-3 at the French Open on Monday.
Norway’s Ruud, who will face either last year’s runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas or 19-year-old Holger Rune on Wednesday, overcame a brief fightback from his 12th seeded opponent to achieve one of the goals he had set for himself this season.
“It feels great, it was one of my goals this year. I feel more experienced playing best of five sets,” said Ruud, the first Norwegian in the last eight at Roland Garros.
“Hubert has improved a lot on clay, he has become a dangerous player on all surfaces; he has a dangerous serve but I did well at returning it today.”
After an early trade of breaks, Ruud stole his opponent’s serve again to go 3-1 up as Hurkacz double faulted.
He left no room for hope to the Pole, making only two unforced errors before bagging the set as the 12th seed buried a forehand into the net.
A fine backhand winner down the line gave him the break and a 2-0 lead in the second set, which was another easy affair for Ruud as Hurkacz still had to find his range on serve.
The Pole woke up in the third set and it was a different story, with several spectacular exchanges at the net.
Hurkacz peppered the court with winners and he was rewarded with a break for 4-2 and held throughout to reduce the arrears.
He stole Ruud’s serve right away to take command of the fourth set, only for the Norwegian to fight back for 2-2 with a crosscourt passing shot winner.
Ruud broke decisively for 4-2 as Hurkacz made yet another forehand error.
The Pole saved a match point at 5-2 but bowed out on the second when Ruud fired a crosscourt forehand winner.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
