Casper Ruud's not-ideal season almost continued in East Asia as the Norwegian barely avoided getting beaten by Tomas Martin Etcheverry at the 2023 China Open.
While Ruud isn't known as a superb hardcourt player, he's certainly a capable one as his run to the US Open final last year proved. He hasn't played well this year at all, but that wasn't the huge problem in this matchup. He played pretty well but simply ran into an incredible performance by Etcheverry.
The Argentine proved a few times this year that he can be very good but this performance today was a bit surprising. The higher bounce in Beijing helped his game because it allowed him to play really aggressively and with a lot of power.
That gave Ruud tremendous problems, especially since Etcheverry was consistent. He didn't miss too much, and even when he did, he would make up for it with a great serve or just another incredible winner. He had it all working today - serve, forehand and backhand, though it kind of faded a bit towards the end of the match.
The opening set went to him 6-1 as he smashed Ruud easily for the first set. The second set was far more competitive as Ruud opened with an early break, but he would give it back a few games later. The frustrations rose for Ruud, who managed to pull himself together and hold his serve, getting another chance to break.
He took it and won the second set, sending the match into a very exciting decider. It was a great one as Etcheverry kept his level good and actually took the lead 4-2. It came after Ruud wasted 3 consecutive break points, but despite falling behind, the Norwegian didn't give up and battled back to 4-4.
The match was decided in the tiebreak, which Etcheverry opened amazingly, taking a 4-0 lead but allowing Ruud to fight back. Eventually, the Norwegian got to match points and used the second one to win the match. The final score was 1-6 7-5 7-6(7) as Ruud overcame a 51-winner match from Etcheverry.
Up next none other than Carlos Alcaraz who cruised past Lorenzo Musetti.
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