(Tennis news) Casper Ruud took the title at Buenos Aires as he was playing on tour after a month since playing at the ATP cup. Ruud is now unbeaten at the Argentina Open, he entered the main draw in 2020 and went on to lift the title; this time he did not drop a set on the way to the final. While it was the second win for the Norwegian at the event, runner up Diego Schwartzman has been reaching the quarterfinals or better since 2018. He was the runner up in 2019 and won the title last year.
The defending champion had a tough run to the final after losing a set in the last two matches and battling a two set tiebreaker in the opening match. Schwartzman had last reached a final three months ago at Antwerp where he lost to Jannik Sinner whereas Ruud was on a 5 match winning streak in the finals which started last year. Ruud had won his first tour title at the event two years ago where he beat Pedro Sousa in the final, Sousa had a walkover in the semifinal against Schwartzman.
The world number 8 had a set point in the first set which took 42 shots for the Argentine to overcome and save the set in the most suited fashion. The first break came in the 10th game as the home crowd favourite took four straight points to set the match up and running. In the second set, Ruud got the break in the 6th game with a cheeky shot at the net and well timed forehands during the breakpoint. After taking the second set, the 23 year old took an early lead which led to another break as he completed the victory in 2 hours and 35 minutes. Ruud defeated Schwartzman 5-7, 6-2, 6-3.
“It’s been an unbelievable week," said Ruud after sealing his seventh ATP Tour title. "To come back here and try to defend the title not from last year but from two years ago has been a challenge, and I enjoyed every minute of it.”
The pair has now met 4 times on clay with Schwartzman winning the first two meetings, overall the 29 year still leads their career head to head meeting with 5 wins as Ruud has won thrice. The result has pushed the ranking by one place ahead for Schwartzman as he is now ranked 14 below Cameron Norrie. Ruud is still behind Andrey Rublev at number 8 and the Russian leads by over 600 points.
