Beaten Ruud: Sinner’s Rome performance “as near as perfect as I’ve witnessed”
The Italian’s 6-0, 6-1 win was his heaviest ever on the ATP Tour as he reached the semi-finals in Rome
Inside / Psnewz
Casper Ruud said the performance of Jannik Sinner in their quarter-final at the Rome Masters was as near to perfect as he’s ever seen.
World No 1 Sinner produced a masterclass as he thumped the Norwegian 6-0, 6-1 to reach the semi-finals in what’s his first event after serving a three-month doping ban.
Ruud, the winner in Madrid last time out, could only smile at the end of the match and admitted Sinner had been unplayable.
“Yeah, it’s as near as perfect that I witnessed, at least as a player playing someone,” Ruud told reporters in Rome. “Just got to give it to him.
“I mean, the first four games, I did maybe a couple unforced errors my forehand where I went for it, but I missed. Everything else that came out of his racquet and throughout the whole match, as well, feels like a hundred miles an hour plus.
“Every single shot from the forehand, from the backhand. Even on my shots that I feel at times are pretty heavy, it comes back just firing. It’s just immensely impressive. That’s really all I can say.”
Ruud rues poor serving day
Ruud admitted his serve had let him down – his first serve percentage was just 52 percent, and whenever he had to hit a second serve, he was under attack.
“The shot that lets me down the most today is my serve,” he said. If I serve better, sure, you get more free points. From the baseline, I won maybe one or two of the longer rallies. I’m not even sure if I won any when I think about it. There had to be one or two, I think.
“Majority of the baseline rallies he got the better of me, even though I felt like I tried to set up the points how I wanted. He was just everywhere.
“It’s kind of saying that when someone plays that well, it feels like you have two forehands, one from the forehand side and the other from the backhand side. In his case, it’s almost like two backhands because his backhand is also so good. It was like playing a wall that shoots hundred-mile-an-hour balls at you all the time.”
“It almost feels like fun”
Ruud said he didn’t mind being beaten so heavily.
“It doesn’t feel so bad honestly,” he said. “I think it was more fun than anything, even though I lost 0 and 1. You just look at the guy and say, This is kind of, yeah, next-level shit – excuse my language, but I don’t know what else to say. It was almost fun to witness at the same time.
“Of course, I wish it was a closer match. I wish I could have given the people and the fans a longer, closer match.
“But I think that I was there ready to play, but he was just even readier. Every area of my good shots he matched with even better back. I couldn’t re-answer with a better shot. That was just the story of the match.”
