"Very fortunate to get through" says Casper Ruud after win over Lloyd Harris

Tuesday, 12 October 2021 at 20:00

Casper Ruud continued his ATP Finals pursuit with a great comeback win over Lloyd Harris that featured immense battle until the end.

South African Lloyd Harris emerged as a player who on his day is extremely hard to beat on hard courts. A game centred around his powerful game and flat groundstrokes create a lot of issues for many players. The only problem Harris has is holding that level for longer periods of time. A similar thing happened against Ruud with the Norwegian turning around the match as his level dropped in the later sets.

Ruud himself was aware that he was lucky to get through and he confirmed as much saying:

"It was a very tough match and I was fortunate to get through in the end. There were only some points here and there that decided this match. I saved a lot of break points and in crucial points, I stepped up my game. It was frustrating because Lloyd was playing well and I was not really feeling the groove like I felt in the first match and in the end I was fortunate to get through.”

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Ruud did not play his best tennis but he was able to weather the storm and stay long enough in the match to his the level of his opponent drop off a little bit. As noted above he saved many break points that could have speed up a potential loss for him but he stayed resilient. On that he said:

“It is quite a simple quote my dad told me when I was young. He used to go to an academy called Rick Macci and he would always tell my father that losers find excuses and winners find a way. This is a quote my dad has been telling me for many years. You always try to find a way. Today I did. I was down pretty much the whole match and I found a way luckily.”

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🇳🇴 Ruud Rallies 🇳🇴 Tour title leader @CasperRuud98 withstands the storm to advance to a first round of 16 in Tennis Paradise, eliminating Harris in three. #BNPPO21