Norwegian tennis star Casper Ruud thought everythind kind of went his way versus Benoit Paire and that was one of the keys to his easy victory over the Frenchman in Geneva. Second-seeded Ruud had a first round bye in Geneva, before dominating Paire 6-3 6-1 to progress into the quarterfinal.
“Everything went my way a little bit,” Ruud said, per the ATP Tour website. “I was broken at the beginning, so it was not the best start but then I found my game a little bit better and got some free points here and there.
“It probably wasn’t his best serving performance, so that helped me obviously and I was able to get my game going well”.
Ruud cruised past Paire
Ruud lost a total of four games versus Paire but he made a slow start to the match as the Frenchman claimed the first break of the match in the third game to take a 2-1 lead.
However, it didn’t take long for Ruud to get back into the set as he broke back Paire in the fourth game to level the set to two games apiece. Ruud had a great chance to break Paire again in the sixth game but he missed out on three consecutive break points as the Frenchman served out the game and tied the set to three games apiece.
Ruud maybe didn’t get a break in the sixth game but he broke Paire in the eighth game for a 5-3 lead, before serving out for the first set in the following game. After winning the last three games of the first set, Ruud started the second set with back-to-back breaks and a 4-0 lead.
Paire served out the fifth game to end Ruud’s run of seven games and cut the second set deficit to 4-1 but it didn’t change much. In the seventh game – when Paire was serving to stay in the match – Ruud earned his third break of the set to complete a straight-set win. Ruud will be fightining against Thanasi Kokkinakis for a place in the Geneva semifinal.
