ATP Tour

Ruud saves 2 MPs to oust Paul; Zverev wins in four sets

Casper Ruud rallied from two sets down and saved two match points to overcome Tommy Paul on Friday to keep alive his Roland Garros title hopes.

The two-time finalist overcame the 24th seed 4-6, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(4), 7-5 after four hours and 43 minutes on Court Suzanne-Lenglen. Ruud, seeded 15th, saved two consecutive match points while serving at 4-5, 15/40 in the fourth set.

“It's battles like this you train hard for,” said Ruud. “[To] be in a position to be love-two down, it's not fun, but it's an opportunity to come back. I just told myself, ‘One set at a time and see what happens from there’.”

On Paul’s first match point, the American missed wide on a forehand down-the-line pass. Then, Ruud served into Paul’s forehand at 30/40 and last year’s quarter-finalist missed the return in the net. Paul was unable to break Ruud’s serve, a theme for the third-round match. The 29-year-old converted just two of his 14 break chances while Ruud converted all three of his opportunities, according to Infosys Stats. Ruud earned a decisive break at 6-5 in the decider to advance.

“Maybe that was the only thing I can say or show on the statistics that was maybe the key to how I won the match,” Ruud said of the contrast between break-point conversions.

Ruud, placed in the bottom half of the draw, will next meet 28th seed Joao Fonseca, who stunned three-time champion Novak Djokovic in five sets. With World No. 1 Jannik Sinner and 24-time major titlist Djokovic suffering early exits in Paris, Ruud is among the favourites to claim his first major crown.

The 27-year-old reached the Roland Garros final in 2022 and 2023. He fell to Rafael Nadal and Djokovic, respectively, in those championship matches.

Another former finalist, second seed Alexander Zverev continued his pursuit of his first major title, ousting Frenchman Quentin Halys 6-4, 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 to avoid the upset trend in Paris.

The German, who reached the championship match in 2024, showed little to no signs of added weight on his shoulders en route to his third-round victory.

Although Zverev dropped serve late in the third set, while Halys was swinging freely in an attempt to extend the match, the 24-time tour-level titlist quickly rebounded in fourth set to avoid any drama. Zverev converted his third match point to advance.

Halys previously tested Zverev at this year’s ATP Masters 1000 event in Miami. Zverev won that clash 7-6(4), 7-6(1). On Friday, the World No. 3 created 17 break chances, converting seven.

The 29-year-old will next meet lucky loser Jesper de Jong. The Dutchman took a set off Zverev at last year’s Roland Garros. Zverev leads their Lexus ATP Head2Head series 2-0.