Casper Ruud will be in the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings once again on Monday, after reaching the 2024 Mexican Open quarterfinals.
The Norwegian has been in good form recently. Last year, he struggled with his results quite a lot, and much of that was related to his off-season, which he completely abandoned in favour of an exhibition tour with Rafael Nadal.
This year, he learned a lesson from what happened in 2023 and properly prepared for the new tennis season. That has already yielded some results, as he's been playing quite well in Los Cabos despite finishing as a runner-up.
In the first round of the Mexican Open in Acapulco, he was able to overpower Christopher Eubanks in a difficult three-setter, and in the second round, he got the job done in only two sets.
After facing an early break point against Dusan Lajovic, the Norwegian player regrouped on his serve, and delivered a solid and consistent serving performance in the opening set of the match.
That gave him a chance to create break point chances in the tenth game of the set, which were also set points, and after using his third and last break point, the sixth seed was able to win the opening set 6-4.
The second set was similarly dramatic, but this time around, Ruud didn't face any break points. Still, he got his chances to break, and once again when his opponent was serving to stay in the set, and this time also in the match.
Applying pressure twice when it mattered was enough for Ruud to win this match, as he outplayed Lajovic, winning 6-4, 7-5 to set up a quarterfinal clash with Ben Shelton who bested Matteo Arnaldi in his second-round match.
The Norwegian will also return to the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings on Monday, as he's currently projected to be ninth, five points ahead of Stefanos Tsitsipas, and since the only player that can overtake him, Alex de Minaur, is the Greek's quarterfinal opponent, only one of them will have a chance to secure enough points to overtake Ruud, securing him at least the tenth place on Monday.