The Ruud Awakening!

stringertom

Bionic Poster
In his very first Challenger tournament, 17-year-old Norwegian Casper Ruud has made all the way through qualifying to the main draw finals tomorrow in Seville, Spain versus veteran Taro Daniel.

His path to the finals included hard fought upsets of #5 seed Andrej Martin (Umag 250 finalist) and #1 seed Inigo Cervantes (São Paulo 250 SF).

Ruud reached the #1 world junior ranking at the start of 2016 but has opted to focus on the pro tour, playing 11 Futures tournaments and winning two of them and two trips to other finals.

Casper is the son of Christian Ruud, who reached top 40 in the mid-90's.

A win tomorrow will place Ruud in the top 275.
 
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gogo

Legend
Cheering for Casper in his finals match this weekend!
(why am I not surprised that you'd find a way to use your clever pun in the thread title, tom? I like it.)
 

donquijote

G.O.A.T.
Ruud Awakening?
casper-the-friendly-ghost-78596176.jpg
 

gogo

Legend
just flipped the stream on ...looks like Casper is now pushing Taro around the court.

Spoke too soon. Break point for Daniel.

ETA: and Ruud eeks out the game. up 5-3 in the 2nd.
 

gogo

Legend
double match point.

ETA: Daniel manages to come back and win his serve game. Ruud serving for the match at 5-4
 

gogo

Legend
Completely off topic (and a nod to morten), but...

I've been enamoured with Norway ever since I started following track ('athletics' to everywhere in the world except US and Canada) when my kids got competitive. The Junior World Championships were held in Bergen Norway. I looked it up and let's just say that Norway is an absolutely gorgeous country with awesome people. JMO.
 

morten

Hall of Fame
Completely off topic (and a nod to morten), but...

I've been enamoured with Norway ever since I started following track ('athletics' to everywhere in the world except US and Canada) when my kids got competitive. The Junior World Championships were held in Bergen Norway. I looked it up and let's just say that Norway is an absolutely gorgeous country with awesome people. JMO.
What can i say. . Thank you
 

stringertom

Bionic Poster
Props for spotting this up and comer before the rest of us. Hopefully he can go on and do great things.
He gets another bite at the apple right away with a WC into main draw at consonant soup Polish Challenger and is now ranked above his 1R Challenger opponent Italian Edoardo Eremin. He could face #1 seed Marcel Granollers in QFs if he wins two matches.
 

stringertom

Bionic Poster
Ruud has won the first set, 6-3 by capitalizing on his only BP opportunity and saving 5 BPs on his serve.

On his own serve, he plays on the baseline or in and dictates. Receiving is a totally different approach, playing well back and is exposed to Eremin moving him around a lot. He needs better and aggressive returns to recapture the chance to dictate on his terms in Eremin's service games.
 

gogo

Legend
Ruud has won the first set, 6-3 by capitalizing on his only BP opportunity and saving 5 BPs on his serve.

On his own serve, he plays on the baseline or in and dictates. Receiving is a totally different approach, playing well back and is exposed to Eremin moving him around a lot. He needs better and aggressive returns to recapture the chance to dictate on his terms in Eremin's service games.

And Casper takes the match 63 64. Onward!
 

stringertom

Bionic Poster
Ruud wins 6-3 6-4!

Great serve/FH combo, hitting many winners DTL and inside-out off of any ball left hanging midcourt. His BH was steady but not a big weapon; I like that he already throws in some shbh slices to change pace.

The returns need some work...stands way back and he doesn't have the wheels of a young Nadal to pull off aggressive tactics from there...lots of returns popping up midcourt that Eremin punished.

He plays #8 Cecchinato in 2R, who also won in straights. Could be a tough one; Cecchinato made the finals in Como Challenger two weeks ago, beating Volandri, the younger Ymer and Melzer, and Taro Daniel.
 

Sysyphus

Talk Tennis Guru
Sadly didn't get a chance to watch. Very good that he has kept up the winning habit this week too. Many juniors in his position would've seen a slump. Onwards, Casper!
 

stringertom

Bionic Poster
Sadly didn't get a chance to watch. Very good that he has kept up the winning habit this week too. Many juniors in his position would've seen a slump. Onwards, Casper!
Eremin helped a lot...very low 1st serve percentage and an UE waiting to happen.

I really like how Ruud closed the match on a love game hold, showing Norwegian ice water in the veins. A break there would have made for sweaty palms, squeaky bum time.
 

Sysyphus

Talk Tennis Guru
Eremin helped a lot...very low 1st serve percentage and an UE waiting to happen.

I really like how Ruud closed the match on a love game hold, showing Norwegian ice water in the veins. A break there would have made for sweaty palms, squeaky bum time.

Only fitting then that his main sponsor seems to be the bottled-water company Isklar (ice clear).
 

Chanwan

G.O.A.T.
Kid's got some serious potential, it seems. Haven't been able to watch much of him yet.
What's the verdict from those who have? (read S.Toms above).
 

Locotus

Hall of Fame
Kid's got some serious potential, it seems. Haven't been able to watch much of him yet.
What's the verdict from those who have? (read S.Toms above).

Obviously loads of potential. Forehand is already a weapon, especially on clay. Improved serve and a more reliable BH compared to last year. As Tom mentioned he tends to be pushed around in the return games and I'd say his overall physics won him the Sevilla challenger. It was played in 40+ degrees where the likes of Zeballos retired from heat exhaustion. I do like that he's not afraid to end points at the net despite not having a convincing net game.

He's clearly vulnerable to pressure in the backhand corner and RoS has to be worked on. So far he's getting away with it vs. top 200 guys on clay, but if he gets to Brown or JJ I'm afraid those weaknesses will be well exposed.

Ruud is now on a 18 game winning streak, counting the norwegian championships in mid august. Following the win in Sevilla he had to rethink his schedule. He's still entering Chengdu on a WC, but I'll guess he's planning to rack up as many points as possible on clay to try to get into AO qualies.

Ruud used to lose thight matches vs. the younger Ymer who is now finally back in play. It will be interesting to see if he now has turned the tables in what will hopefully be a great scandinavic rivalry. BTW Ruuds next opponent beat Ymer 6-3/7-6 in Como two weeks ago.
 

Sysyphus

Talk Tennis Guru
Oh yeah, a Ruud–Ymer rivalry could prove seriously enticing. IMO Ymer looked even more promising but he got sidelined for more than half a year with injury, which must suck pretty bad when you're only 17. Great that he's back on the grind now as well tho.
 
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