Francisco Cerundolo held off his own nerves and a strong comeback from defending champion Casper Ruud to cause a second-round upset and earn his first Top 10 win at the Nordea Open in Bastad on Wednesday afternoon.

Cerundolo broke Roland Garros finalist Ruud’s serve three times to run out a 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 winner at the ATP 250 event in Sweden. Despite the World No. 5 Ruud raising his level after a slow start to pile the pressure on the 23-year-old Argentine, Cerundolo clinched a decisive break in the 12th game of the third set to reach the quarter-finals in Bastad for the first time.

“I think I was playing really well in the first one-and-a-half sets, and then I got a little bit tight,” said Cerundolo. “I started missing a little bit and he started serving better. He’s a great player, a French Open finalist, so it was a great challenge for me and I’m really happy to get through.”

A First Top 10 Win! 🎉@FranCerundolo upsets World No. 5 Casper Ruud with a 6-4 3-6 7-5 win in Bastad#NordeaOpen @NordeaOpen pic.twitter.com/Zk7bNOX7O3

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) July 13, 2022

Cerundolo and Ruud’s sole previous meeting came in the semi-finals of the Miami Open presented by Itau in March. The Norwegian was a comfortable straight-sets winner on that occasion, but Cerundolo was clinical at key moments on Wednesday as Ruud struggled to find his rhythm in his first match on clay since he fell to Rafael Nadal in the Roland Garros championship match in early June.

Cerundolo, who is up to No. 35 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, will next face Aslan Karatsev or Hugo Gaston as he seeks his third tour-level semi-final of 2022.

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Earlier on Wednesday, Pablo Carreno Busta notched his 250th tour-level win with a hard-fought 4-6, 7-6(5), 7-5 victory against 2016 champion Albert Ramos-Vinolas.

Both players broke their opponent’s serve five times in a topsy-turvy second-round clash, but it was Carreno Busta who prevailed to move to 4-0 on clay against fellow Spaniard Ramos-Vinolas, with all four of those meetings having gone to a deciding set. The fifth seed will next face Diego Schwartzman or Elias Ymer as he looks to advance to the semi-finals in Bastad for the first time, in what is his fifth appearance at the ATP 250 event.

Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini survived a scare to reach the quarter-finals at the Nordea Open Wednesday, edging Ariel Behar and Tomislav Brkic 7-6(3), 2-6, 10-3 in Bastad.

The second seeds, who enjoyed a run to the final together at the ATP 250 event in 2018, raised their level in the Match Tie-break to ensure they started their title quest with victory, advancing after one hour and 43 minutes.

The Italians are aiming to capture their second tour-level crown of the season as a team this week, having lifted the trophy in Rio de Janeiro in February. They will next play Pablo Carreno Busta and Joao Sousa at the clay-court tournament.

Rafael Matos and David Vega Hernandez continued their strong season, downing Filip Bergevi and Lukasz Kubot 7-5, 6-1 to advance to their ninth quarter-final of the year. The fourth seeds captured titles in Marrakech and Mallorca earlier this season.

Nikola Cacic and Aleksandr Nedovyesov became the first team to reach the semi-finals in Bastad, edging Marc-Andrea Huesler and Pavel Kotov 4-6, 6-2, 10-3 in 72 minutes. Cacic and Nedovyesov are joining forces for the first time this week and will next play either Bolelli and Fognini or Carreno Busta and Sousa.

Purcell/Van Rijthoven Advance In Newport
Max Purcell could not get past Andy Murray Wednesday on the singles court at the Infosys Hall of Fame Open, but he found more joy on the doubles court just days after lifting the Wimbledon doubles title alongside fellow Aussie Matthew Ebden.

Purcell and Tim van Rijthoven, who reached the Wimbledon singles fourth round in his tournament debut, defeated Max Schnur and Artem Sitak 7-6(2), 7-6(3) to make a winning start in Newport. They next face fourth-seeded Americans William Blumberg and Steve Johnson.

Also advancing in Wednesday’s doubles action were Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow. The third seeds won an all-American matchup against Richard Ciamarra and Sam Querrey to set up a quarter-final meeting with another American pair in Alex Lawson and Robert Galloway.

Playing at the Infosys Hall of Fame Open for the first time since 2006, Andy Murray carried his strong grass-court form into Newport with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Sam Querrey on Tuesday.

“It’s obviously amazing to be back here and playing on this court again after 16 years,” Murray said in his on-court interview. “A lot has happened in that time: four kids, married and all that stuff. But I’m happy to be back.” 

After falling to another big-serving American in John Isner in the Wimbledon second round, the 35-year-old  beat Querrey on his opponent’s home turf to return to winning ways. The sixth-seeded Briton improved to 6-2 on the grass this season, including a run to the Stuttgart semi-finals last month, when he lost to eventual champion Matteo Berrettini.

Murray was a perfect six-for-six on his break chances in the match as he dragged Querrey into rallies on return throughout the 54-minute contest. The Briton dropped serve in the opening game of the match but was firmly in control beyond that, coping with the blustery conditions far better than his opponent. 

“It was so breezy and really difficult… but we’re doing the best we can given the conditions,” added Murray, who said he prioritised a high first-serve percentage and hit to big targets to avoid wind-whipped errors. The Briton made 76 per cent of his first serves in the match compared to Querrey’s 39 per cent. 

“Any match that I get to play now I try to make the most of it,” he said. “I’ve obviously had a lot of issues with injuries the last four or five years. You never know how close you are to the end, but I’m aware I’m getting towards the end of my career so I make the most of every match and every tournament I get to play now.”

With the victory, Murray moves into joint-seventh place in Open Era grass-court win percentage according to Infosys ATP Stats, with a 116-25 record on the surface, an identical mark to Boris Becker.

Open Era Grass-Court Win Pct. Leaders (min. 100 matches)

Murray advances to face Max Purcell in the second round. The Australian backed up his Wimbledon doubles triumph alongside countryman Matthew Ebden with a 6-3, 1-6, 7-5 victory against Adrian Mannarino earlier on Tuesday.

Also advancing at the ATP 250 in Newport were fifth seed Benjamin Bonzi, seventh seed Jiri Vesely and eighth seed James Duckworth. Bonzi defeated American William Blumberg 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, while Vesely downed Feliciano Lopez 6-4, 6-2 and Duckworth edged Liam Broady 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.

Tim van Rijthoven, who claimed his maiden tour-level title on the grass of ‘s-Hertogenbosch last month and reached the Wimbledon fourth round, could continue his strong run in Newport. American Mitchell Krueger earned a 7-6(7), 4-6, 6-3 victory to eliminate the in-form Dutchman.

Andres Molteni and Hugo Nys earned victory on their team debut Tuesday, overcoming Belgians Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen 6-4, 6-4 to reach the second round at the Nordea Open in Bastad.

The Argentine-French tandem saved both break points they faced to advance after 74 minutes. They will next play fourth seeds Rafael Matos and David Vega Hernandez or Lukasz Kubot and Filip Bergevi.

Fabrice Martin and Franko Skugor provided the shock of the day, upsetting top seeds Rohan Bopanna and Matwe Middelkoop 7-6(3), 6-3. The French-Croatian pair, who were playing together for the first time, won 81 per cent (38/47) of first-serve points to triumph.

In other action, Pablo Carreno Busta and Joao Sousa defeated Aslan Karatsev and Philipp Oswald 7-6(3), 7-6(5), while Marc-Andrea Huesler backed up his singles win over Holger Rune by teaming with Pavel Kotov to eliminate Leo Borg and Elias Ymer 6-1, 6-4 in 55 minutes.

It has been a long wait, but Dominic Thiem is a winner on the ATP Tour once again.

The former World No. 3 battled to a 3-6, 6-1, 7-6(5) first-round victory against Emil Ruusuvuori on Tuesday afternoon at the Nordea Open in Bastad. It was the Austrian’s first tour-level win for 14 months, nine of which the 2020 US Open champion spent out of action due to a wrist injury.

“It’s a long time,” said Thiem in his on-court interview. “My last victory was in Rome in 2021, it feels like a different world somehow. Many, many things happened. It was tough, but it was also a very good experience, I think, for life in general. I’m so happy that I got this first victory here today.”

Thiem was under pressure early against the World No. 43 Ruusuvuori in the pair’s first ATP Head2Head meeting. The Finn raced to an unassailable 5-1 lead in the opening set, but Thiem raised his level to roar back into contention by reeling off five games in a row in the second set to level proceedings.

Despite some nervous moments in the deciding-set tie-break, Thiem stayed solid to clinch just his second win at any level in 2022 having saved eight from 12 break points against the clean-hitting Finn.

“It was a very difficult match,” said Thiem. “I didn’t have a very good start and then I fought really well, but I had a really tough period with many losses and not many wins, so it was really difficult for me to close out the match. Even though I played pretty good in the second and third sets. I have to control the nerves a little bit better, especially when it gets to the end.”

Thiem’s next opponent on his debut appearance in Bastad will be fourth seed Roberto Bautista Agut.

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Earlier on Tuesday, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina notched an impressive 6-4, 6-2 win against Joao Sousa to reach the second round in Bastad for the first time. The Spaniard, who surged to his maiden ATP Masters 1000 final on the clay at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters in April, next faces a tough assignment against eighth seed Sebastian Baez or 2018 champion Fabio Fognini.

A pair of first-round matches with one-sided opening sets also saw Aslan Karatsev and Federico Coria advance to the second round in Sweden.

Karatsev breezed through the opening set against Lorenzo Sonego, but had to rally from a break down in the third set to complete a 6-0, 2-6, 6-4 win and extend his ATP Head2Head series against the Italian to 3-0. In contrast, Coria endured a nightmare start to his all-Argentine clash with qualifier Federico Delbonis, but the World No. 65 raised his game for a 0-6, 6-4, 6-4 win to book a second-round appointment with Andrey Rublev.