Andy Murray’s San Diego open campaign came to a hard-fought end when he lost to 22-year old Norwegian World No. 10, Casper Ruud today.
Murray, who was looking to better his last performance when he reached the semi-finals in a previous competition, bowed out with his head held high after losing 7-5, 6-4 to Ruud.
It wasn’t an easy win for Ruud as Andy obviously wasn’t resigned to losing, seeing as the former World No 1 started off things early with a 3-1 lead in the opening set after a great service break. But an energetic and unrelenting Ruud wouldn’t have any of it, and he bounced right back to a 3-3 draw, then got another service break which saw his opponent lose the first set 7-6.
Playing in an exciting second set that saw Ruud take the initial lead, the experienced Murray did exactly what his younger opponent had done in the first set and bounced back to 4-3 from 3-0 down.
Ruud proved too good, or rather, in better form, as he overcame the hurdle to secure his first-ever win over the legendary Murray, thanks to four straight breaks against the latter. The win could perhaps be a result of Ruud not writing off his opponent, because he (Ruud) acknowledges that, form aside, Murray is an inspirational legend who never gives up.
“For the past ten or fifteen years, he has been an inspiration to watch on TV, the way he fights and always finds a way to never give up,” Ruud admitted.
As Murray exits to plan for the future, Ruud faces off against Italian ninth seed Lorenzo Sonego for tomorrow’s quarter-finals. The latter eased past the unseeded American Sebastian Korda in straight sets of 6-4, 6-3 today to enter the next round.
