Casper Ruud eases past Benoit Paire in Geneva

Casper Ruud returned to Geneva to defend his trophy won last year and he got off to a great start by beating Benoit Paire 6-3 6-1.

Benoit Paire scored a rare win in the previous round over Emil Ruusuvuori but he could not bring the same level of tennis to this match. Ruud is a very solid player and he's the wrong type of player to play if you are Paire. The Frenchman does not enjoy long rallies and he tries to hit winners early. Unfortunately, Ruud will grind you down in rallies and won't allow you to set up as you want to and that was a problem.

For the early part of the match, Paire handled himself well however towards the end he lost his focus a little bit and Ruud was able to cruise to a 6-3 opening set win. Paire was not very happy with himself and somewhat rage quit in the 2nd set. He started missing, he started rushing while Ruud calmly accepted his meltdown from the other side of the net.

The Norwegian jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the 2nd set and from there he calmly finished out the match. It was a good start from Ruud who is finally showing strong clay tennis, just in time for the French Open. It will suit him well there.