American Jenson Brooksby upset Norway’s Casper Ruud, the #2 seed at the Australian Open, in the second round of the tournament. The American Brooksby prevailed 6-3 7-5 6-7 6-2 over Ruud in a match that lasted four hours.
Brooksby’s well rounded game, highlighted by short baseline strokes and a solid serve, was great for the hard courts of Melbourne, and proved too much for Ruud, who looked out of form in his first round match and even worse in his second round match, perhaps nursing an injury, as the Norwegian world #3 was clearly ailing at times during the match and at the end of the second set called the trainer for medical attention.
The opening set of the match saw Brooksby save a break point for 3-3, then break Ruud in a closely fought ensuing game to go up 4-3. Ruud would face a third break point in the set in his final service game of the opening set, and he was broken, with Brooksby taking the set 6-3.
A slight underdog going into the match, the world #39 Brooksby was the more in-form player in the second set as well, he saved two break points created by Ruud in the opening game of set 2. The pair would break each other’s serve consecutively for 2-2, Brooksby saved three break points in the 3-2 service game, and then, serving to force a tiebreak, Ruud was broken to drop the second set 7-5 and put himself in a deep hole, at which point he called the trainer and moved off court briefly.
In the third set the nerves began to show for Brooksby, from 2-0 up, instead of pushing on to victory, he lost his serve to Ruud, and failed to break Ruud back in the ensuing game due to errors off his backhand side. Despite clearly feeling a bit shaky, Brooksby continued to have the best of Ruud for portions of the third set. Ruud was simply not a threat with his groundstrokes in most of the match, Brooksby would break Ruud to go up 4-2 and then win his ensuing service game for a 5-2 lead. Ruud never gave up though, he saved three match points against Brooksby, and with an improved forehand, would engineer an impressive comeback to force a third set tiebreak that he prevailed in, with Brooksby’s game growing erratic under pressure, late in the third set.
Ruud was unable to continue that momentum in the fourth set though. The Norwegian viking attired fans in the arena were expecting a comeback, but Brooksby broke Ruud to love in the opening game, and it was one way traffic for Brooksby on return, he broke Ruud 3 times for a 4-1 lead as the Norwegian’s trusty forehand deserted him again. Ruud would secure a late hold to force Brooksby to serve the match out at 5-2. Brooksby hit an amazing stretch backhand down the line to go up 30-0 in the final game of the match. Brooksby’s probing groundstrokes, especially on the backhand side, kept Ruud unsettled and he served the match out 6-2 in the fourth set.
A semifinalist in Auckland to start the season, Brooksby has reached three ATP finals in his career including two last year, with all of his best results coming on American soil. He previously scored a top 10 win against Stefanos Tsitsipas at Indian Wells last year as well, and his best result in a Grand Slam came in 2021 when he reached the fourth round of the US Open. A result he can match if he wins his third round match against fellow American Tommy Paul who won a five setter in round 2 against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
Ruud’s loss means the top two seeds at the Australian Open are out before the third round, top seed and defending champion Rafael Nadal lost the prior day to American Mackenzie McDonald, in what is proving to be a great opening week for American players at the Australian Open. The likes of Brooksby, McDonald, Taylor Fritz, Ben Shelton, JJ Wolf, Sebastian Korda, Tommy Paul, and Frances Tiafoe have all made positive strides and won matches in the early stages of the tournament. Both McDonald and Brooksby were standouts in NCAA college tennis, McDonald excelled at UCLA, while Brooksby did the same at Baylor. It should be noted that Ruud’s best result at the Australian Open was only the fourth round, and in his current form he was not considered one of the top contenders for the title despite his high ranking and two Grand Slam finals last season at the French Open and the US Open.
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