Norwegian tennis player Casper Ruud, ranked 15th in the ATP world ranking, was crowned champion of the Madrid Masters 1000 after defeating Englishman Jack Draper 7-5, 3-6, and 6-4 in an exciting match that lasted two hours and twenty-nine minutes. Ruud, who had dropped out of the Top 10 two weeks ago, achieved an important victory that will allow him to rise to seventh place in the ATP rankings, while Draper will reach fifth position, the highest of his career.
The match was intense from the start, with Ruud facing a break in the third game of the first set. Despite the pressure, the 26-year-old player managed to recover and win four consecutive games, including two breaks, to take the set 7-5. In the second set, Draper did not give up and forced Ruud to decide everything in the third set, where the Norwegian finally claimed victory in his first title of the season.
Ruud showed great determination by breaking his opponent's serve in the fifth game of the final set and maintaining his lead until the end, thus achieving the most important title of his career and silencing the critics who questioned his performance in key matches. Now, both Ruud and Draper are preparing for the Rome Masters, which will start on Monday and culminate on May 18, with Alexander Zverev as the defending champion of the tournament.
With this victory, Ruud became the third Scandinavian player to lift an ATP Masters 1000 title on clay, following in the footsteps of Stefan Edberg and Magnus Norman.
