Casper Ruud recovered from a slow start against Cristian Garin on Thursday, when he battled back to earn a 1-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory at the Hamburg European Open.
The top seed, who reached the semi-finals at the ATP 500 clay-court event in his previous appearance in 2020, played with greater intensity and consistency as the one-hour, 41-minute clash progressed. Ruud gained a crucial break at 2-2 in the second set and then saved all five break points he faced across the second and third sets to reach the quarter-finals.
"Cristian played much better than me at the beginning," Ruud said. "He broke me right away and was returning from all corners. I had no answers, but just tried to stay in there in the second set and told myself to keep going, maybe I will get a chance. At 2-2 I was able to break him on my first break point and things started to change. A couple of points can decide a match. Even though the result in the end seemed kind of clear, it is always tough against Cristian."
With his 22nd clay-court tour-level win of the season, Ruud improved to 2-3 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series against Garin, who had won their previous two clay-court matches. Only Carlos Alcaraz (25), has most tour-level victories on clay in 2023.
The 24-year-old Ruud is chasing his second tour-level trophy of the season, having lifted his 10th ATP Tour crown in Estoril in April. He will continue his quest against #NextGenATP Frenchman Arthur Fils.
Germany's Daniel Altmaier earned his third Top 10 win when he upset World No. 7 Andrey Rublev 6-2, 6-2 to reach his second tour-level quarter-final of the season.
The home favourite Altmaier was backed by vocal support in Hamburg and came out firing against the second seed. The 24-year-old opened his shoulders to hammer an array of winners past Rublev, ending the Bastad champion's five-match winning streak after 75 minutes.
Altmaier will next face Zhang Zhizhen after the Chinese star beat Yannick Hanfmann 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. Altmaier, who had never advanced beyond the first round in four previous appearances at the ATP 500 prior to this week, enjoyed a run to the quarter-finals on clay in Madrid earlier this season.
© Copyright 1994 - 2024 ATP Tour, Inc. All Rights Reserved. No part of this site may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way or by any means (including photocopying, recording or storing it in any medium by electronic means), without the written permission of ATP Tour, Inc.. Terms & Conditions | Privacy | Modern Slavery Statement | Feedback | Cookies
