Hamburg [Germnay], July 28 : Casper Ruud recovered from a slow and shaky start against Cristian Garin and battled back to register a 1-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory at the Hamburg European Open.
Casper Ruud will next lock horns with Frenchman Arthur Fils.
The top seed, who last competed in the ATP 500 clay-court event in 2020 and reached the semifinals, improved his consistency and intensity throughout the course of the one-hour, 41-minute match. At 2-2 in the second set, Ruud made a key break, and he later saved all five break points he came up against in the second and third games to advance to the quarterfinals.
"Cristian played much better than me at the beginning. 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," ATP.com quoted Ruud as saying.
Ruud advanced to 2-3 in his ATP Head2Head series against Garin, who had won their previous two clay-court matches, with his 22nd clay-court tour-level victory of the year. The most victories on clay at the tour level in 2023 go to Carlos Alcaraz (25).
Elsewhere, Germany's Daniel Altmaier registered 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.
People loudly cheered for the local favourite Altmaier, who attacked the second seed with gusto. After 75 minutes, the Bastad champion's five-match winning streak was snapped by the 24-year-old, who opened his shoulders to slam a variety of winners past Rublev.
Zhang Zhizhen defeated Yannick Hanfmann 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, and will now take on Altmaier. Prior to this week, Altmaier, who had made four previous appearances at the ATP 500, had never gotten past the first round. However, earlier this season, on clay in Madrid, Altmaier had reached the quarterfinals.
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