Casper Ruud in the quarter-finals of the Montreal Masters 1000

After the eliminations of the top seeds #1 (Medvedev), 2 (Alcaraz), 3 (Tsitsipas) and 5 (Rublev), #4 managed to qualify. But it was hard for Casper Ruud, winner in 3:19 against Roberto Bautista Agut (6-7 [4]7-6 [4], 6-4) at the end of a match cut by an eleven-minute toilet break (the Norwegian received a warning for having only changed without going to the toilets) and a rain break of 1h10 in the third set as the Spaniard led 1-0. Surely the turning point of the match.

Before this break, the match between these two eye-catching players alternated between flashes and releases, with big arm wrestling from the bottom in a disjointed scenario. The first tie-break went to Bautista Agut taking advantage in particular of a horrible missed smash from his opponent. In the second, Casper Ruud, more and more enterprising, had accumulated spectacular backhand winners (4) to equalize at one set everywhere after coming close to elimination.

First victory for Ruud against Bautista Agut

On the restart, the Norwegian definitely moved up a gear by putting much more intensity in his strikes, and in particular the returns, to manage to overtake the Spaniard. It was almost another player, already a finalist in Miami in April on this tough American he also loves, who first got three match points at 5-3 on the opposing service, saved admirably by RBA. But in the next game, the Norwegian, winner for the first time of the Spaniard at the end of their third confrontation, remained ruthless on his face-off. He will be opposed in the quarter-finals to the winner of the match between Auger-Aliassime and Norrie.