Rome [Italy], May 20 : Casper Ruud will have to wait for his maiden ATP Masters 1000 title after he lost against Holger Rune in the Italian Open semifinals on Saturday.
In a tight clash, Rune rallied from a breakdown in the second set to overcome Ruud 6-7(2), 6-4, 6-2.
The Norwegian, on the other hand, was pleased with his performance in Rome, where he scored his best Masters 1000 result of the season.
"Yeah, good feelings overall. It was a pity today that I wasn't able to close out the match, but that's how it goes. A couple of days ago I could have lost in the third round. I mean, I was very happy to be in the semis. I played some good matches, got some good wins. Hopefully, I can build on this further," ATP.com quoted Ruud as saying after the match.
"There are two more tournaments on clay now before the grass comes up for me - Geneva and Roland Garros - where last year I have some of the best memories of the year. I hope that I can sort of awaken those memories again and keep building and be strong and fit and ready for Roland Garros," he added.
The Norwegian, who reached the final of the clay-court major last year, arrived in Rome after a mediocre season by his standards. In the Italian city, he appeared near to his best, climbing nine places to 15th in the ATP Live Race To Turin.
The 24-year-old was frustrated he was unable to close out and reach his second ATP Masters 1000 final (Miami 2022).
"It was a well-played match until maybe the third set. I didn't play too well, unfortunately. There were some great rallies. Both of us, we can chase down balls. I think we like to run around on clay. I think Holger plays also very aggressively. But he can run and slide around there and defend as well. It was some great rallies," Ruud said.
"I was very happy with the level that we played at for almost two sets. As I said, the third set was unfortunately poor by me. I'm going to try to erase that from my memory as quickly as possible. There were some great rallies. It was a fun match to play. Also, I think I crowd enjoyed it," the 24-year-old said.
Ruud was full of praise for the 20-year-old Holger Rune and said, "I think he plays very fearlessly, and takes the ball early, which is really impressive to do on clay. It's not very typical to sort of do too well on clay because you have some wrong bounces and all these things. He did it really well. A couple of times I played heavy, he just went on the rise, and hit the clean winner back. I think that's really well done."
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