Casper Ruud had very few chances to find himself at the ATP Finals in Turin before the event anyway, but they're now completely gone with his early exit at the 2023 Paris Masters.
This has not been a very good year for Casper Ruud, who, to be fair, had an amazing year last year. Repeating that was never easy, but nobody really expected him to regress this badly this year.
He played in Turin in the past two years but will now miss the event. There were some scenarios where he could have found himself there, but he needed a deep run at the Paris Masters.
That won't be happening, as he was beaten by Francisco Cerundolo in the second round of the event. Indoors was never his best surface, but he was pretty competent in the past year or two.
That's not the case this year as Cerundolo thoroughly outplayed him in two sets. The first one opened with an early break for the Argentinian, but Ruud fought back.
Even so, the Norwegian couldn't really handle his opponent all too well as Cerundolo broke late to win the set 7-5. Cerundolo served better, and he was by far more dangerous from the baseline, hitting 15 winners in the opening set.
The second one was Ruud controlled the ball a bit better having fewer errors, but he could still not outhit his opponent. Cerundolo posted another brilliant line of 13 winners and only three unforced errors to win the second set and end the match.
The final score was 7-5 6-4 for Cerundolo, who had more aces and almost twice as many winners as Ruud did. A terrible conclusion of the season for Ruud, but it should give him plenty of time to really reset and return in better shape next year.
As for Cerundolo, he will face Hubert Hurkacz next.
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