Barcelona Open 2023: Ruud beats Shelton in straight sets, reaches third round

Ruud, seeded third, won 6-2, 7-6(1) in an hour and 39 minutes to avenge his loss to Shelton at the same stage in last year’s Cincinnati Masters.

FILE PHOTO: Norway’s Casper Ruud (in pic) beat USA’s Ben Shelton in straight sets to reach third round of the Barcelona Open on Tuesday.

Two-time Grand Slam finalist Casper Ruud beat Ben Shelton in straight sets to book his place in the round of 16 of the Barcelona Open, an ATP500 event, on Tuesday.

Ruud, who reached the 2022 French Open and US Open finals, won 6-2, 7-6(1) in an hour and 39 minutes to avenge his loss to the rising left-handed American at the same stage in last year’s Cincinnati Masters which was their first-ever meeting.

“It was in the back of my mind. I think Cincinnati last year was a breakout tournament for Ben, where things started going so well for him. Obviously, this year as well [at the Australian Open], where he made the quarter-finals, so he’s had an unbelievable progression in a short period of time… I had to be on top of my game and tried to feel more at home than him somehow on the red clay,” Ruud told atptour.com

World No.3 Ruud, who received a bye in the first round, dominated Shelton in the opening set as he broke his serve in the third and fifth game.

However, the twenty-year-old Shelton, who made his red clay debut in Estoril two weeks ago, fought back to break Ruud when the Norwegian was serving for the match at 5-4 in the second set. But Ruud stopped the youngster from taking the match to a third set as he breezed through the tiebreaker.

Third-seeded Ruud, chasing his 10th title on clay and 11th overall, will next face either Italy’s Francesco Passaro or Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo. Passaro defeated 2010 champion Fernando Verdasco 6-1, 6-1 on his tournament debut while Cerundolo received a first-round bye.

In other results, Cerundolo’s compatriot Diego Schwartzman won 6-2, 6-2 against China’s Yibing Wu, Russia’s Alexander Shevchenko beat Italian qualifier Lorenzo Giustino 6-2, 6-2 while Matteo Arnaldi, another Italian qualifier, prevailed 6-3, 6-4 against local player Jaume Munar to book their places in the second round.

David Goffin beat Feliciano Lopez 7-6(3), 6-7(4), 6-0, while Alejandro Davidovich Fokina defeated Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-3, 6-3.

World No.2 Carlos Alcaraz began his title defence with 6-3, 6-1 win over Portugal’s Nuno Borges while USA’s Frances Tiafoe went down 4-6, 7-6(3), 4-6 to Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori.