Francisco Cerundolo held off his own nerves and a strong comeback from defending champion Casper Ruud to cause a second-round upset and earn his first Top 10 win at the Nordea Open in Bastad on Wednesday afternoon.

Cerundolo broke Roland Garros finalist Ruud’s serve three times to run out a 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 winner at the ATP 250 event in Sweden. Despite the World No. 5 Ruud raising his level after a slow start to pile the pressure on the 23-year-old Argentine, Cerundolo clinched a decisive break in the 12th game of the third set to reach the quarter-finals in Bastad for the first time.

“I’m feeling amazing, I’m really happy,” said Cerundolo after the match. “It’s amazing getting my first Top 10 win. It’s been the best year so far in my career. He’s a French Open finalist and was the defending champion here, so it was a big challenge for me and I’m happy to go through.”

Cerundolo and Ruud’s sole previous meeting came in the semi-finals of the Miami Open presented by Itau in March. The Norwegian was a comfortable straight-sets winner on that occasion, but Cerundolo was clinical at key moments on Wednesday as Ruud struggled to find his rhythm in his first match on clay since he fell to Rafael Nadal in the Roland Garros championship match in early June.

“I think the key was to be offensive and try to dictate the point,” said Cerundolo. “Playing intelligently with my forehand and trying to put him on defence.

“It’s always tough to beat the best players. I got tight at the end, but I stayed there and got the ball in, and I’m really happy.”

Cerundolo, who is up to No. 35 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, will next face Aslan Karatsev as he seeks his third tour-level semi-final of 2022. The 28-year-old Karatsev was a 6-2, 6-4 second-round winner against Hugo Gaston in Sweden to reach his first Tour quarter-final since Marseille in February.

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Earlier on Wednesday, Pablo Carreno Busta notched his 250th tour-level win with a hard-fought 4-6, 7-6(5), 7-5 victory against 2016 champion Albert Ramos-Vinolas.

Both players broke their opponent’s serve five times in a topsy-turvy second-round clash, but it was Carreno Busta who prevailed to move to 4-0 on clay against fellow Spaniard Ramos-Vinolas, with all four of those meetings having gone to a deciding set. The fifth seed is looking to advance to the semi-finals in Bastad for the first time on what is his fifth appearance at the ATP 250 event.

Carreno Busta will next face third seed Diego Schwartzman, who ended home interest in the draw with a 7-5, 6-3 second-round victory against Elias Ymer. Schwartzman, who has reached Tour finals on clay in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro this year, is making his second appearance in Bastad after reaching the quarter-finals on debut in 2017.

Source Tennis – ATP World Tour