The Ice Man starts hot at Bastide Medical UTS Nimes
Casper Ruud beat Alexei Popyrin 17-13, 20-6, 16-10
Casper Ruud, UTS Nîmes 2025 | © Tennis Majors pour UTS
Casper “The Ice Man” Ruud got off to a winning start at Bastide Medical UTS Nimes, defeating Alexei “The Sniper” Popyrin by three quarters to love, 17-13, 20-6, 16-10.
He will now play Andrey “Rublo” Rublev in the semi-final.
I got a good start, tried to build on it, and, I was able to play some really good points, build a point well.
“My game style on clay was will always be kind of similar, trying to play as heavy as I can, play the right shots, make my opponent move, and take it from there,” Ruud said afterwards.
“Sometimes you will have to play 10 shots to hit the winner, sometimes two is enough, so you never know, so you just try to play as many good shots in a row as possible.”
Terrific Ruud’s dropshot
Popyrin was a late replacement for the injured Holger Rune, so perhaps had less preparation time than his opponent, who was impressive throughout and even threw in some delightful drop shots to thrill the crowd.
Ruud got off to a very quick start, roaring to a 9-1 lead before Popyrin began to close in.
The Australian took his little victories where he could against an opponent who is very comfortable on clay, celebrating each point.
What turned out to be match point arrived on the Popyrin serve, and once more Ruud’s drop shot was used to terrific effect, leaving The Sniper wrong-footed and heading to the net only to shake hands.
