Fifth seed Casper Ruud stunned by Miomir Kecmanovic at Rome Open in pre Roland Garros blow

Casper Ruud came into this double having won Barcelona and reached the final in Monte-Carlo but he will go into Roland Garros with another early loss. This time at the Rome Open as he fell to Miomir Kecmanovic 6-0, 4-6, 4-6.

Amid recent issues for Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz and with Novak Djokovic not regularly playing up until now, Ruud alongside Stefanos Tsitsipas was touted as potentially a favourite for Roland Garros. But that suffered a blow today. He won the opening set 6-0 and looked to breezing towards the finishing line.

Even coming back from 4-2 down to make it 4-4. He was broken back immediately when he could've served to go one away from the match and Kecmanovic came back superbly to steal the set and a march after a pretty poor opening set. In the third set, it was the matter of one break as Ruud lost his serve at 3-3 and Kecmanovic staved off two break point chances to make it 5-3 and go one away. Ruud held his serve but couldn't trouble Kecmanovic in the end as he sealed the win.

Also through earlier was a certain Taylor Fritz. But it was better for the American as he prevailed 6-3, 6-4 over Fabio Fognini. In a one hour, 21 minute success, he continued his good form as of late against the Italian veteran who was part of the infamous Dan Evans match last night with the line judge drama. No such dramas here for Fritz as he won through. He now faces Sebastian Korda who himself had his jibes with the Italian crowd. But he prevailed earlier today.