Casper Ruud Snaps Defending Finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas’ Phenomenal Clay-Court Streak at Mutua Madrid Open 2021

It was the night of the pre-quarters at the Mutua Madrid Open 2021 and fans witnessed an exciting clash there. In an epic encounter, World No.22 Casper Ruud defeated the man in-form Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets. The final scoreline of the match was 7(7)-6(4), 6-4.

Before this, Tsitsipas had reached consecutive finals on two clay court-court tournaments this year- Monte Carlo Masters 2021 and the Barcelona Open 2021. However, his streak of reaching to finals came to an end after Ruud crushed him in straight sets at the Mutua Madrid Open 2021.

Set-1: Casper Ruud seals the close tie-breaker

Casper Ruud began the set in style after easily winning the first game. However, Stefanos Tsitsipas struck back in the next game to equalize the scoreline at 1-1. Both the players continued to dominate the match on their serving games and as a result, the scoreline continued to get leveled up.

Interestingly, none of the two players managed to break in the set and failed to earn any break-points. While Ruud was serving brilliantly, he had no answers to the accurate and well-timed forehands of Tsitsipas.

The set reached the tie-breaker when the scoreline was 6-6. In the tie-breaker, it was Ruud who displayed some phenomenal exhibition of skills and won it 7-4. As a result, he won the set 7(7)-6(4).

Set-2: Casper Ruud stuns Stefanos Tsitsipas yet again

World No.5 Tsitsipas began the set beautifully this time after establishing an early 1-0 lead over Ruud at the end of the first game. However, the Norwegian tennis player equalized the scoreline in the next game.

The same story continued and the one who was serving continued to win the games. Thus, the scoreline soon became 3-3 at the end of the sixth game. However, it was Ruud who became the first player to break in the seventh game of the match. He was now leading 4-3.

Ruud widened the margin of his lead to 5-3 at the end of the next game and was just one game away from entering the quarters of the Mutua Madrid Open 2021. However, Tsitsipas didn’t let Ruud take away the next game and he bounced back to reduce the lead to 5-4.

Serving for the set, Ruud soon ended Tsitsipas’ journey in Madrid shorty as he conquered the set 6-4, and thus the match.