Casper Ruud moves ahead of Djokovic and Medvedev with title win in San Diego

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Casper Ruud in action

Casper Ruud cemented his reputation as one of the rising stars of the game as he beat Cameron Norrie in straight sets 6-0 6-2 to take the San Diego Open title.

Ruud dispatched Andy Murray earlier in the tournament, while Norrie was coming off the back of victories over Dan Evans, Denis Shapovalov and top seed Andrey Rublev.

But the Norwegian was too good, breaking Norrie to love to wrap up a bagel inside 27 minutes.

Norrie’s first game won came early in the second, but Ruud broke for 4-2 and again to wrap up the championship and claim his fifth title of 2021.

Tennis legend Rod Laver was on hand to present Ruud with his trophy as he stated: “Special thanks to Rod, obviously the legend. I think you need to come to all my matches now because I’m playing really good when you come and watch

“I hope you will come to Indian Wells next week to watch, so let’s see what happens there!”

Ruud is also in contention to qualify for the end of season ATP Finals in Turin, as he now has more titles in this calendar year than any other player.

“It’s a fun thing to say it, but obviously Daniil (Medvedev) and Novak (Djokovic) have bigger titles, so I wouldn’t mind switching up with them if I had an opportunity to switch five 250s to three Slams and a 250 Novak has,” he added.

“It’s a bit higher level, but that’s fine. I think that’s more impressive obviously than five 250s, but I will take it.

“It would be fun to end the year with the most titles, I cannot lie about that.”

Meanwhile, in the doubles, Britons Neal Skupski and Joe Salisbury took the title with a 7-6 (2) 3-6 10-5 victory over John Peers and Filip Polasek.

Casper Ruud

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