Casper Ruud is into the fourth round at the Canadian Open after another straight-sets victory over Nuno Borges.
The Norwegian defeated Borges 7-5, 6-4 in round three to set up a clash with 11th seed Karen Khachanov in Toronto.
Ruud suffered a knee injury in June, which saw him miss Wimbledon, as well as the entire grass swing, before making his return at the Swiss Open.
He’s now back in action, however, and the former world number two is off to a hot start in Canada, where he thinks he has an unexpected advantage.
Photo by Julian Avram/Icon Sportswire via Getty ImagesCasper Ruud says people may not expect him to play well in Toronto
After his victory over Borges, Ruud said: “I was down quite badly in the first set, somehow turned it around and stole the set a little. But I think I also raised my level, and I returned quite well today.
“These courts are so fast, so it’s hard to swing at the ball here on the return so I tried to just make returns somehow.
“Chip it, keep it low, and if you are able to keep the ball low, it’s really hard to attack here, so the ball skids off and you have to be careful.
“That was the game plan and just to try and make as many balls as possible, but at the same time be aggressive.
“There will be some unforced errors here and there; that is fine. But I served well and played really well when I had to, and the most important points at the end of the first and second set, I played well.
“I think on a court like this even though maybe you don’t think that I should play so well here, because I am more of a top spin player.
“But I think the fact that my base of my game is not doing too many errors really helps on this court, because if you are late here you cannot adjust and you hit error after error after error.
“You will see games where guys do four errors in a row and get broken and I try not to make that happen too much in my game.
“If you are able to keep the ball in play here and hustle your way through games you can get some free points from your opponents here and there and that happened a little bit today, in a few games where I broke him.
“I made a few returns, sure, but he hit himself out of play or out of the court and you take the unforced errors if you can get them.”
Casper Ruud’s unforced errors throughout the tournament so far
In his first match at the Canadian Open with Roman Safiullin, Ruud won 6-3, 6-3, and tallied 22 unforced errors, compared to his opponent’s total of 29.
Against Borges, the 26-year-old recorded 23, trailing the Portuguese star’s sum of 36.
MatchUnforced ErrorsAgainst Borges22Against Safiullin23Casper Ruud’s unforced errors so far at the Canadian Open
Ruud has been in impressive form so far in his return from injury, and has only been broken twice in Toronto.
He’ll look to take this momentum into his match with Khachanov, whom he has never lost to before.
Their last meeting was in the semifinal of the US Open in 2022, where the Russian was defeated over four sets.