At the Gonet Geneva Open on Wednesday, Casper Ruud produced an outstanding comeback, defeating Sebastian Ofner 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 after trailing by a set.
Even though Ofner won his first set against a Top 10 player in 22 attempts, the former world No. 2 had lost his previous two matches following a strong start to the clay-court swing. However, Ruud restored order in time to book a quarterfinal match with No. 5 seed Sebastian Baez after an hour and forty-seven minutes on Center Court.
Ruud defeated Novak Djokovic to go to the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters final, which put him in the early running to win his first major title at Roland Garros this year. After losing to Stefanos Tsitsipas there and coming in second, the Norwegian exacted revenge a week later by winning the biggest championship of his career—his first ATP 500—at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell.
Ruud suffered a slight setback in the fourth round at the Caja Magica against Félix Auger-Aliassime, but his opening-round loss to good friend Miomir Kecmanovic raised further red flags when Ruud disclosed that he had experienced a “lock” in his lower back throughout the three-set loss.
With just one week till Roland Garros, Ruud was desperate for momentum despite the injury’s severity. He went back to the Tennis Club de Genève confident he would find it as he took an early lead against Ofner.
Before facing Ruud, Ofner, the No. 2 seed, had a record of 0-21 in sets against Top 10 opponents. However, the Austrian qualifier managed to turn the tables on Ruud, winning six of the next eight games and taking the opening set from the two-time Geneva Open champion.
From then on, Ruud controlled the race, taking a bigger advantage in the second and breaking Ofner three more times to win in under two hours.
In the round of eight, he will face Baez, who on Tuesday fell short of Spanish player Roberto Carballés Baena in just three games. Ruud has a 2-0 head-to-head advantage over the Argentine, despite the latter’s strength on clay. Both of their meetings took place on clay last year.
