PARIS, May 30 — Eighth seed Casper Ruud became the first Norwegian man to reach the French Open quarter-finals today with a four-set win against Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz.
The 23-year-old held off a brief Hurkacz fightback to win 6-2, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 and will face either fellow Scandinavian youngster Holger Rune of Denmark or fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas on Wednesday.
Ruud is into his first ever Grand Slam quarter-final as he continues an impressive season which has seen him win two clay-court titles.
“It’s been a goal of mine to reach the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam,” said Ruud, who missed the Australian Open with injury.
“I didn’t have the chance to play the Australian Open. Roland Garros is always a big goal, but even more so this year because I missed Australia.” He dominated the first two sets before Hurkacz, who reached the Wimbledon semi-finals last year, battled back to force a fourth.
The Pole led by a break as he looked to take the match to a decider, but he could not maintain his momentum as Ruud moved 5-2 in front.
Hurkacz saved a match point on his own serve, but Ruud closed it out in the next game.
“Luckily, it was looking a bit dark for me in the fourth set as well but I managed to break him a couple of times,” he said.
Ruud won his only previous clay-court match against Tsitsipas last year and has won all three of his previous ATP meetings with Rune. — AFP