Casper Ruud withdraws from Rome Masters

Norwegian Casper Ruud won't be making his third consecutive appearance at the Rome Masters as he has withdrawn from the event. 

Ruud, who debuted at the Rome Masters in 2019, made the Rome semifinal last year before losing to world No. 1 Novak Djokovic.

In 2019, Ruud made the Rome round-of-16 as a qualifier before losing to Argentine Juan Martin del Potro. 

Ruud won't be playing for the third week in a row as he played in Munich last week, before participating at this week's Madrid Masters.

Ruud lost in the Madrid semifinal 

Ruud made his third Masters semifinal in Madrid but again failed to reach his maiden semifinal. 

Before the semifinal match, Ruud said: "It will obviously mean a lot. This is the third time now. I hope that's the lucky charm, like we say.

"The previous two times I lost to Djokovic, then I lost to Rublev. Whoever it will be tomorrow will be at least a lower-ranked player. But they're both great players. I hope that I can try to take advantage of that.

"It's not maybe Djokovic on the other side of the net, but like I said they're both great players and I will have to play a great match again to be able to win. I will do everything I can to be ready. I'm very motivated for the third semifinal in a Masters 1000 of my career so far."

On Saturday night in Madrid, Ruud suffered a straight-set 6-4 6-4 loss to Italian tennis star Matteo Berrettini.

Berrettini earned the first break point of the match in the ninth game and realized it to take a 5-4 lead, before serving out for the opener in the following game.

Berrettini then broke Ruud in the seventh game of the second set to take a 4-3 lead.

Berrettini failed to convert a match point in the ninth game but served out for the match in the following game. 

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3uEOGN6