The game was a little more… Ruud than the final score would show. Dominic Thiem has certainly got rid of Casper Ruud in two and a quarter hours and three sets (6-4, 6-3, 6-1), Friday, October 2, thus reaching the knockout stages. But the young Norwegian gave a bit of a hard time to the Austrian, world number three and recent winner of the US Open.
The first set was tight with Ruud (25th player in the world) leading 3-1. Dominic Thiem also did not appear to be the most confident on his own serve in the first set, or even at the start of the second set, offering for example two break points to his opponent when he was leading 2-1.
It must be said that, on clay, Casper Rudd is the player with the most victories to his credit this year (17): he was notably a semi-finalist at the tournaments in Rome and Hamburg in September.
“I’m very happy, I had a very good game, few faults against a very good player, confident, one of the best on clay this year. There were a lot of good rallies ”, declared Dominic Thiem, who so far not lost a single set during his Parisian fortnight.
“Not an easy match” for Svitolina
In women, “It was not an easy match”, confessed the Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, fifth in the world, after having won her qualification for the round of 16 by beating the Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova (31st in the world). ” I knew she was hitting hard and flat. I had to run a lot ”, commented Svitolina, who won in straight sets (6-4, 7-5) after 1 hour and 40 minutes of play.
