ATP Tour

Ruud bounces back from Rome final defeat, advances in Geneva

Casper Ruud bounced back from his Rome final defeat with victory just 48 hours later at the Gonet Geneva Open, where he moved past Jenson Brooksby 6-3, 7-5 to reach the second round on Tuesday.

Ruud lost on Sunday in the Italian capital to Jannik Sinner, who became just the second man to complete the Career Golden Masters. In an impressive display in Geneva, Ruud struck 21 winners and committed 12 unforced errors to advance.

Ruud has won a record three titles at the ATP 250 clay-court event and this week is seeking his maiden trophy of the year. The No. 17 player in the PIF ATP Rankings has won six of his past seven matches and next plays Raphael Collignon after the Belgian beat Adrian Mannarino 6-3, 7-6(5).

“This stretch of tournaments is quite a lot but they are nice tournaments and I like playing here. I like playing on clay. I try to use the clay season the most I can and every time I come to Geneva I have a good result at Roland Garros, so let’s hope to keep that tradition going,” said two-time Roland Garros finalist Ruud.

In other action on Day 3, Alexei Popyrin battled past French qualifier Clement Tabur 7-6(2), 6-7(5), 6-4. The Australian will meet top seed Taylor Fritz in the second round. Fritz is competing for the first time since Miami in March.

Eighth seed Jaume Munar also advanced, downing American qualifier Nishesh Basavareddy 6-0, 6-3 in just 75 minutes. With his second clay-court tour-level win of the season, the Spaniard set a second-round match with Francisco Comesana.