Ruud on Sinner beatdown: 'This is next-level s%*#'

Sometimes you just have to hold your hands up and say, ‘Too good’.

That was the case for Casper Ruud on Thursday night in Rome after he was on the receiving end of a scintillating Jannik Sinner performance at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia. The No. 7 in the PIF ATP Rankings Ruud, who won his maiden ATP Masters 1000 title in Madrid just 11 days ago, was powerless to stop Sinner from racing to a 6-0, 6-1 quarter-final victory in Rome.

“It doesn't feel so bad honestly,” said Ruud, whose serve was broken six times by Sinner in the 64-minute encounter, according to Infosys ATP Stats. “I think it was more fun than anything, even though I lost [0-6, 1-6]. You just look at the guy and say, ‘This is kind of next-level shit’ — excuse my language — but I don't know what else to say. It was almost fun to witness at the same time.

“Of course, I wish it was a closer match. I wish I could have given the people and the fans a longer, closer match. I think that I was there ready to play, but he was just even readier. Every area of my good shots he matched with even better back. I couldn't re-answer with a better shot. That was just the story of the match.”

The World No. 1 Sinner came out firing from the opening point against Ruud, who even had to save two break points en route to winning his only game of the match early in the second set. The 26-year-old Ruud was not ready to be too harsh with himself given the consistent brilliance emanating from his opponent’s racquet.

“It's as near as perfect that I witnessed, at least as a player playing someone,” said Ruud of Sinner’s performance. “Just got to give it to him. I mean, the first four games, I did maybe a couple unforced errors with my forehand where I went for it, but I missed. Everything else that came out of his racquet and throughout the whole match, as well, felt like a hundred miles an hour plus.

“Every single shot from the forehand, from the backhand. Even on my shots that I feel at times are pretty heavy, it comes back just firing. It's just immensely impressive. That's really all I can say.”

Having had his nine-match winning streak halted in emphatic fashion, Ruud will aim to move on quickly when he defends his title at next week’s Gonet Geneva Open. The 13-time ATP Tour champion would certainly be unlucky to come across another opponent in as rich a vein of form as Sinner showed on Thursday evening, even if Ruud himself did not produce his best level.

“The shot that let me down the most today is my serve,” said Ruud. “If I serve better, sure, you get more free points. From the baseline, I won maybe one or two of the longer rallies. I'm not even sure if I won any when I think about it. There had to be one or two, I think.

“In the majority of the baseline rallies he got the better of me, even though I felt like I tried to set up the points how I wanted. He was just everywhere. It's kind of saying that when someone plays that well, it feels like you have two forehands, one from the forehand side and the other from the backhand side. In his case, it's almost like two backhands because his backhand is also so good.

“It was like playing a wall that shoots hundred-mile-an-hour balls at you all the time.”

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