Ruud, Rublev fall in Paris, as De Minaur, Tsitsipas, Dimitrov see Turin path
Casper Ruud and Andrey Rublev’s second-round exits at the Rolex Paris Masters on Tuesday could have major implications on the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin.
In a back-and-forth battle with Jordan Thompson, Ruud fell to a 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-4 defeat, while Francisco Cerundolo defeated sixth seed Rublev 7-6(6), 7-6(5) to record his 100th tour-level win.
[ATP APP]Ruud is currently seventh in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin with 3,855 points. Eighth-placed Rublev trails the Norwegian by 135 points to close out the qualification spots.
However, both players are unable to secure further points at this week’s indoor ATP Masters 1000. Meanwhile, fellow Turin hopefuls Alex de Minaur (ninth), Grigor Dimitrov (10th), and Stefanos Tsitsipas (12th) are all still alive and could climb further.
De Minaur would surpass Rublev if he were to make the quarter-finals. If De Minaur and Tsitsipas met in the semi-finals in Paris, and Tsitsipas went on to win the title, then both players would leapfrog Rublev and Ruud.
If De Minaur were to lift the trophy, he would jump to sixth, and even fifth if Taylor Fritz fell to an early defeat. Either Dimitrov or Tsitsipas triumphing in Paris would catapult them into sixth place in the Live Race, which concludes next week at the Belgrade Open and Moselle Open in Metz.
In the last match on Tuesday, Ruud forced a deciding set, but it was Thompson who stood firm to move 4-3 ahead in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series.
“I think my ball is a little bit flatter, it doesn’t give him as much time to wind up on both groundstrokes,” said Thompson, who defeated Ruud in the Los Cabos final to claim his maiden ATP Tour title in February. “But he is playing good on hard courts too, I’ve just managed to get the better of him a couple of times.
“Today I found it a lot harder, he was hitting it a lot deeper and firmer, but thankfully I managed to pull through.”
Earlier, Cerundolo rallied from a break deficit in both sets to upset Rublev and record his 100th tour-level win. The Argentine was ruthless in attack, winning 86 per cent (7/8) of net points, according to Infosys ATP Stats.
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