{"id":782428,"date":"2026-09-25T18:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T18:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/782428\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T18:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T18:32:11","slug":"ruud-provides-early-team-europe-lead-in-cerundolo-rematch-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/782428\/","title":{"rendered":"Ruud provides early Team Europe lead in Cerundolo rematch | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a rematch of their Laver Cup opener of two years ago in Berlin, Casper Ruud gave host Team Europe an early 1-0 advantage on Friday thanks to a 6-7(4), 6-4, 10-8 turnaround against Team World\u2019s Francisco Cerundolo at The O2 in London.<\/p>\n

Ruud, 27, was playing the tournament\u2019s opening match for a fifth time, facing the only player to defeat him on the Laver Cup singles court. He got his revenge on Day 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to thank my team and my bench,\u201d said Ruud, a nod to his Carlos Alcaraz-led rooting section. \u201cThey pushed me all the way. They kept me in it, really. It was tough to lose that first set. Europe can build on this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a great start for us. Every point on the board is important. I knew that,\u201d he added. \u201cEven though I was down one set to love, I felt, \u2018Let\u2019s try to pull this one out for the team and get a point on the board\u2019. It\u2019s never over until it\u2019s over. Being a match tiebreak in the third makes you even more maybe willing to really fight to win at least one set to get it into match tiebreak.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like he was pushing water uphill, because Cerundolo was impressive. But once he got into the 10-point tiebreak, anything can happen.\u201d \u2014 Team Europe Vice-Captain Tim Henman<\/p>\n

The Argentine Cerundolo looked to be in control of the match and perhaps on his way to a straight-sets victory, but serving at 4-all in the second set, the 28-year-old baseliner couldn\u2019t dig himself out of a 0-40 hole. The nervy two-hour, six-minute match would come down to a 10-point Laver Breaker, and the three-time Grand Slam finalist Ruud didn\u2019t waste his opportunity.<\/p>\n

\"FranciscoFrancisco Cerundolo opens against Casper Ruud in Match 1.<\/p>\n

Though Ruud would finish with 33 unforced errors to just 15 winners, he stepped up when it mattered most.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t finding particularly my second-serve returns that well,\u201d said Ruud. \u201cI had a plan to try to go around and play as many forehands as possible, and I wasn\u2019t able to get around the ball exactly how I wanted. I mishit a few and I hit a few long, a little bit uncharacteristic. When I play my best, I don\u2019t do those mistakes. So it was somewhat nervy, a little bit rusty. Hopefully, a win like today can show me that even without my perfect tennis, I can fight through matches and win against good players.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cerundolo is a member of Team World for the fourth consecutive year, and now owns a 3-2 mark in singles.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like he was pushing water uphill, because Cerundolo was impressive. But once he got into the 10-point tiebreak, anything can happen,\u201d said Team Europe vice-vaptain Tim Henman. \u201cI think it emphasizes that it\u2019s not always about how you start, it\u2019s how you finish.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a rematch of their Laver Cup opener of two years ago in Berlin, Casper Ruud gave host…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":782429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[22635,25582,101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-782428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-casper-ruud","tag-francisco-cerundolo","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}