Ruud starts world no. 1 chase with hard-fought win over no. 110 Machac

| by Sebastian Dahlman

Casper Ruud is one of the players that can become world no. 1 after the first Grand Slam of the season, and he started his quest well.

After missing out on the world no. 1 spot at the 2022 US Open, the young Norwegian is more motivated than any of his opponents to take the spot from Carlos Alcaraz, who currently leads the ATP Rankings, and was the player, who defeated Ruud in the Flushing Meadows.

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In the first round of the 2023 Australian Open, world no. 3 took on Tomas Machac from Czech Republic. The two never met before, but the second-seeded Norwegian was a clear favourite of the match.

But the Czech player started aggressively. He create one chance to break his opponent in the first game, but he couldn't use it. Then, both players showed their serving qualities, until Ruud got the first break of the match, to lead 4-2. He then controlled the rest of the set, as he didn't lose any points on his serve, and won it 6-3.

The Norwegian was the first player to break also in the second set as he grabbed a 6-5 lead. However, his opponent broke back and the set had to be decided in a tie-break. Ruud needed to set points, but eventually won the tie-break 8-6 to increase his lead.

He certainly wanted to finish the match already in the third set, and he had chances to do so. The 2022 US Open finalist had two break points, but couldn't use any of his chances and so another tie-break followed. This time, Machac controlled it from start to finish, and won 7-5 to extend the match into the fourth set.

Despite facing multiple break points also in the fourth set, Ruud managed to eventually win the match in four sets, 6-3, 7-6(6), 6-7(5), 6-3 to advance to the second round. He will play against a very dangerous opponent, Jenson Brooksby.

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