ATP Tour

Ruud escapes Faria scare in Gstaad: 'I had to fight really hard'

Casper Ruud survived a major scare in his opening match at the EFG Swiss Open Gstaad on Thursday, when he rallied past Portugal’s Jaime Faria 6-7(1), 6-4, 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals.

Faria overcame Stan Wawrinka in the first round and was at his free-flowing best for large parts of his clash against Ruud to move close to his first win against a Top-20 player.

However, from a set down, the Norwegian crucially increased his weight and depth of shot. The second seed broke Faria’s serve on his sixth break point of an intriguing ninth game of the second set before he put his foot down to race clear in the third and record his first win since Roland Garros.

“Sometimes it is hard to say when you get a good feeling and you start to win some games in a row,” said Ruud, who is chasing his first title of the season. “You try from the first game to the last, but suddenly something clicked in the middle of the second for me, luckily.

“I had to really fight hard and if I played one bad game in the second and he serves well, it could be over and it would be time to go home. But luckily I can extend the stay.”

Ruud is aiming to join Sergi Bruguera and Alex Corretja as just the third player to lift the trophy in Gstaad on three occasions. The 2021 and 2022 champion, who owns a 10-1 tournament record, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index, will next meet Juan Manuel Cerundolo.

Cerundolo, who upset the No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings Jannik Sinner on clay at Roland Garros in May, overcame Miomir Kecmanovic 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 to advance to his third tour-level quarter-final of the season.

Stefanos Tsitsipas battled past Swiss wild card Jerome Kym 6-4, 6-7(2), 7-6(5) in a match that was suspended due to bad light at 5-5 in the third set on Wednesday night. Upon resumption, the Greek Tsitsipas quickly saved two break points and then prevailed in the tie-break, letting out a huge roar after reaching his second quarter-final of the season.

"Over two days sounds like a cricket match. I am happy to have it done. It was a long one. We played for a long time. He played an unbelievable match from his side and made my life pretty difficult out there," Tsitsipas said when reflecting on his two-hour and 29-minute win. "It is a bit strange going to bed without the match being completed. I was trying to visualise what I was going to do today and it worked out pretty well."

Tsitsipas, a five-time champion on clay, will next play fourth seed Arthur Rinderknech.