Ruud makes winning start in Monte-Carlo against Rune

Casper Ruud made a winning start in Monte-Carlo by outlasting a very inspired Holger Rune 7-6(5) 7-5.

The battle of Scandinavia on the Azurre coast was won by Casper Ruud as teh Norwegian continue his good play that started way back in Miami. The surface is different but that's not a problem for Ruud who prefers to clay compared to hard courts. His opponent RUne does too and he certainly put forward a very good effort.

Rune took notice of the way Alcaraz played against Ruud and adopted some of that aggressiveness in his own game plan. He wasted no time in rallies attacking both with his forehand and backhand. It proved quite effective as he was keeping Ruud away from any break points. He created some problems on return for the Norwegian as well.

The first set was ended in the tiebreak where Rune jumped out to an early 3-0 lead. He was fired up and excited and quite possibly a bit too much. Going for shots he could not hit, Rune squandered the lead losing the tiebreak 5-7. Despite that, he did not lose his motivation and continued playing great in the 2nd set.

He jumped out to an early 3-1 lead but collapsed after that. Ruud won 3 games in a row taking a 4-3 lead with a chance to make it 5-3. He lost his serve and it was the first of 4 consecutive losses of serves. At the end of it, Ruud emerged with a 6-5 lead and his serve ending the match with 7-5.