By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday February 16, 2020
Casper Ruud became the first Norwegian to ever claim an ATP title with his victory over Pedro Sousa in Bueno Aires.
Photo Source: TTV
Like father, like son. Casper Ruud and his father and coach Christian have been the two top-ranked ATP players to ever come out of Norway for some time, but on Monday they’ll flip positions with the 21-year-old protégé rising inside the ATP’s Top 35 (projected 34) and surpassing his father’s previous best by five spots.
Casper made sure of that fact on Sunday in Buenos Aires with an emphatic display of grinding clay-court tennis as he surged past Portuguese lucky loser Pedro Sousa 6-1 6-4 in the Argentina Open final.
Sousa, the first lucky loser to ever reach the final at Buenos Aires, made a match of it in the second set as he let loose on high-risk groundies that impressively found their mark, but it was the sensational serving of Ruud that anchored his performance and eventually got him over the hump as he served the match out on first opportunity to claim his maiden ATP title—also the first ATP title by any Norwegian player.
Ruud, who also became the youngest title winner in Argentina Open history, didn’t face a break point and dropped just 11 points on serve throughout the 71-minute contest.
Ruud has a game well-suited for the clay and he has demonstrated the ability to win on a surface where experience and physical maturity count for so much at a very young age. The Oslo, Norway native hits an impressive amount of topspin and boasts one of the more penetrating forehands in the game at the moment. He can carve angles and use the courts’ geometry well and does so to open up windows for winners with regularity.
The Norwegian improves to 33-19 lifetime on the surface, much better than his 13-23 record on hard.
Though his father was never able to reach into the higher echelons of the sport, it very much looks like his son could hand tennis’ elite a rude awakening in the months and years to come.