Casper Ruud has little trouble in San Diego Open final – The San Diego Union-Tribune
After arriving with a career-high No. 10 ranking, Norway’s Casper Ruud only solidified his elite standing by winning the San Diego Open singles championship.
The second-seeded Ruud bested Great Britain’s Cameron Norrie 6-0, 6-2 for the title of the $600,000 ATP 250 tourney, the first of its kind in San Diego, before a sellout crowd of some 2,000 at Barnes Tennis Center on Sunday.
“For the rest of my life, I can say I’ve been in the top 10,” said Ruud, 22, who earned $92,515 plus 250 points in the ATP rankings. “Hopefully, I can keep going and see how far I can go.”
Ruud earned his fifth title of the year, a tour high, a day after playing a hard-court semifinal match for the first time. He survived some shaky moments then to top Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 but came out sharper in the final. All of his previous titles came on clay.
“I went out there and tried to bring the experience that I have from this year’s finals, knowing how much the final means to push myself a little extra,” Ruud said. “It was one of the best matches that I’ve played all year.”
Ruud next competes in the BNP Paribus Open in Indian Wells, which starts today with qualifying, delayed from traditional spring dates due to the pandemic.
“This victory gives me a lot of confidence, especially that I can beat good players on hard courts,” said Ruud, who plans to play golf in the desert before resuming play. “I had four good matches in a row. My body is feeling well.”
As a tune-up tourney, the local event drew the second strongest ATP 250 tourney of the season, based on player rankings. It was organized in six weeks instead of the typical year, due to tour schedule changes because of the pandemic.
Ruud closed out five games with a service winner. Overall, he won 71 percent of his service points versus just 42 percent by Norrie.
In long rallies, Ruud also proved resilient against a gamut of shots by his left-handed opponent in their first meeting ever.
“I played really well with my forehand, hitting my spots,” Ruud said. “To beat a player like Cameron, that’s what you have to do because he’s really tough.”
Norrie, ranked 28th, came off an 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 semifinal upset of top-seeded and fifth-ranked Andrey Rublev, of Russia.
“I played great then, but I didn’t execute this time,” said Norrie, 26, a South African native, who was left with one title in five finals this year. “It was disappointing not to back it up again. (Ruud) played very solidly. He didn’t do much wrong, and I gave too many errors away.”
Ruud won three tourneys in as many weeks over a stretch ending July 31. He became the first player to accomplish that feat since Andy Murray in 2011,
In doubles, the top-seeded Great Britain duo of Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski beat the No. 3 team of Australia’s John Peers and Slovakia’s Filip Polasek 7-6 (2), 3-6, 10-5.
Salisbury, part of the title team at this year’s U.S. Open, last paired with Skupski in 2018.
Peers and Polasek, who debuted as a team this year, reached the U.S. Open semifinals.
Thien is a freelance writer.
