LONDON: Norway’s Casper Ruud eased to a straight-sets victory over Carlos Alcaraz on Monday as the Spanish star’s bid for a maiden ATP Finals title got off to a poor start.
Ruud romped through the opening set before fighting back from 5-2 behind in the second to win 6-1, 7-5 in Turin.
World number three Alcaraz, who won the French Open and Wimbledon titles earlier this year, made 34 unforced errors in an uncharacteristically errant display.
It was Ruud’s first victory over Alcaraz in their five career meetings.
“I had two good times in Turin before... This part of the season has not been good for me but hopefully I’ve saved some wins for this week and I’ve started well,” said 2022 runner-up Ruud, who had suffered seven defeats in eight matches before this tournament.
Ruud will head into his second match in the John Newcombe group against Andrey Rublev on Wednesday already well-placed to reach the semi-finals for the third time in as many appearances at the year-end event.
World number one and home favourite Jannik Sinner began his bid to win the ATP Finals for the first time with a 6-3, 6-4 defeat of tournament debutant Alex de Minaur on Sunday night.
Sinner, runner-up to Novak Djokovic in the prestigious year-ending tournament last year, dropped behind early in the first set but quickly hit back to dominate the contest.
The Italian, who won this year’s Australian and U.S. Open titles to open his Grand Slam account, completed victory with an ace to make it eight wins out of eight against De Minaur. Agencies
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