The Chilean Cristian Garín, number 97 in the world, gave the surprise this Sunday by winning 6-4 and 7-6 (2) to the Norwegian Casper Ruud, number four, and stand in the second round of the Masters 1,000 of Indian Wells.
Coming from the classifications, Garín settled a streak of eight consecutive defeats against rivals that are part of the top ten in the world ranking.
The Chilean player, who became world number 17 in 2021, beat a Ruud who was the third seed in Indian Wells and who in 2022 was twice a finalist of a ‘big’.
Garín still hasn’t dropped a set in the Californian desert, where he overcame two rounds of qualifying before beating Colombia’s Daniel Galán and Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka.
And this Sunday he played a match of the highest level to extend his balance against Ruud to 3-1.
Solid with the serve, Garín was aggressive in each turn at the service of his rival and asserted a break in the fifth game to open the way to 6-4. The Chilean got breaking balls in three of Ruud’s four shifts with the serve.
His arm did not shake and he took advantage of his first break opportunity, in the third game, to take advantage in the second set and showed excellent mental preparation to Ruud’s reaction of pride.
Because the Norwegian, winner of 51 matches last year, but with a 4-5 record in 2023, recovered the break and increased the level to force the tiebreaker.
The inertia was in favor of Ruud, but Garín played an excellent tiebreaker. He started it with a 3-0 and sentenced it with a resounding 7-2 to fly to the knockout stages.
Video via Twitter: @TennisTV
The Chilean will meet this Sunday his rival, which will be one between the Russian Karen Khachanov and the Spanish Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
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