Casper Ruud drama stuns tennis world in Indian Wells boilover

World No.4 Casper Ruud's surprisingly poor start to the year has continued after the Norwegian suffered a shock loss to Chilean qualifier Cristian Garin at the Indian Wells Masters. Garin's aggressive play overwhelmed the third seed, who he beat 6-4 7-6 (7-2) to reach the last 16 of the event in the California desert.

It represented another massive setback in a horror start to the year for Ruud, who had not advanced past the second round in three prior tournaments. The 24-year-old tennis star enjoyed a breakout year in 2022 after reaching three of the five biggest finals of the year at Roland Garros, the US Open and the ATP Finals.

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Ruud reached a career-high ranking of World No.2 after the US Open but has failed to get anywhere near the same lofty heights in 2023. Having missed the Australian Open in January due to an ankle injury, Ruud has struggled to put together consecutive performances that justify his world ranking.

He had no answers to Garin at Indian Wells as the Chilean blasted 27 forehand winners and fought off a second set comeback from the Norwegian to book his place in the next round. "I'm so happy with the way that I played," said Garin. "I played so aggressive the whole match, even in the second set when I was leading 3-1 and lost those games I kept playing aggressive."

For the 97th-ranked Garin, the result was his first hard court victory over a top-10 player, continuing his impressive form in the California desert, where he hasn't dropped a set in qualifying or main draw matches. His 39 winners were too much for Ruud, who had hoped a quick victory over Diego Schwartzman in his second-round opener would kickstart his season.

However, Ruud broke Garin's serve just once to level the second set at 3-3, before the Chilean turned up the heat again in the tiebreaker and earned a meeting with Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who won a 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 against Karen Khachanov. Tennis fans were left in shock by Ruud's worrying form slump in 2023.

Cameron Norrie survives huge scare

Elsewhere, 2021 Indian Wells champion Cameron Norrie looked like he might also be headed for an unexpected exit after 103rd-ranked Taro Daniel squeezed out the first-set tiebreaker and grabbed an early break on the way to a 4-1 lead in the second. Britain's Norrie gradually found his range and edged the second set 7-5, before dominating in the third to wrap up a 6-7, 7-5, 6-2 victory.

Former World No.2 Alexander Zverev - seeded 12th as he works his way back from torn ankle ligaments that ended his 2022 campaign at the French Open - said he was fortunate to come out on top in a 7-5, 1-6, 7-5 victory over Finland's Emil Ruusuvuori. "Starting the second set and to be honest throughout the third set I felt like he was the much better player and I just kind of was hanging onto the match," the German said.

"I was just trying my best and I'm happy that I found a way because it was all about that today." After recovering an early break in the third set, Ruusuvuori had four chances to break Zverev in the ninth game but couldn't convert.

Serving to force a tiebreaker, he led 30-15 but three straight errors from the baseline handed Zverev the match. "To be honest I think he played much better than me throughout the match," Zverev added. "It's just the way it is sometimes. This is tennis, one or two points can decide a match and I'm happy that I won those points."

with agencies

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