Ruud starts ATP Finals with win over debutant Auger-Aliassime

Bengaluru — Norway’s third seed Casper Ruud downed ATP Finals debutant Felix Auger-Aliassime 7-6(4) 6-4 on Sunday to kick-start his round-robin campaign in the season-ending tournament.

Canadian Auger-Aliassime has been in sublime form at the end of the season, winning three tournaments consecutively before a semifinal run at the Paris Masters, but was not at his best in the opening match in Turin.

Though he fired 26 winners past world No 4 Ruud, they were offset by 26 unforced errors as the Norwegian wrapped up the victory to get on the board in the Green Group, which also has top seed Rafa Nadal and American Taylor Fritz.

“This is some of the best … that I’ve played since the US Open,” said Ruud, who reached the final of the year’s last Grand Slam in New York.

“The last couple of months have been a bit of a struggle … but you have to accept it as well. You will face difficult moments in your career, and maybe these last couple of months was one of those.”

Auger-Aliassime had won 16 matches running to win titles in Florence, Antwerp and Basel in October.

But Ruud, a semifinalist in 2021, stamped his authority in the tiebreak and did not face a single break point in the match as he beat the Canadian for the second time this year.

“Felix has been on a roll this fall. I knew he was going to come out strong,” said Ruud. “I knew if I wanted to have any chance against any of the guys in my group I would have to bring my A-game and today I was able to do so.” 

Reuters