Casper Ruud was hoping that a clay-court title in Estoril would really get his season going. Instead, momentum from last week’s success evaporated with a 6-1, 7-6(8) loss to Jan-Lennard Struff in round three of the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters on Thursday.
Struff raced to a 6-1, 5-2 lead before temporarily collapsing. The 32-year-old German suddenly got broken for the first time all afternoon and then failed to serve out the match yet again at 5-4. Nonetheless, Struff steadied himself with a love hold to force a tiebreaker before capitalizing on his second match point at 7-6.
Ruud is just 9-7 in 2023 and has not defeated anyone ranked better than 32nd in the world.
Next up for Struff is Andrey Rublev, who defeated countryman and Monte-Carlo doubles partner Karen Khachanov 7-6(4), 6-2.
“We know each other too well,” Rublev said afterward. “The first set was only mental; we didn’t show [any] tennis skills. But it was tough to show skills because the wind was really hard and the court was slippery and it was tough to do something. The first set was super mental. As soon as I was able to win a set, I started to feel more free and I felt Karen felt more down. That was the difference.”
nice one, Struff