Casper Ruud finally made his debut at the ATP Shanghai Masters, with the three-time Grand Slam finalist sprinting to victory over Yoshihito Nishioka 7-5, 6-0 on Friday.
The Norwegian ranked ninth and fighting to edge into the field of next month’s eight-man ATP Finals in Turin, beat his Japanese opponent after a first-round bye and now faces American Chris Eubanks in an upcoming third-round contest.
Ruud swept the last eight games of the match to sink Nishioka in 75 minutes.
“Yoshihito came back in a tough, long first set,” Ruud said of an opponent who erased a 4-1 deficit in the opener.
“These things can happen. Whoever wins a first set like this will feel motivated to keep going in the second.
“I know the feeling myself. You feel like you worked hard for an hour just to lose the set and it feels like you have to climb a mountain to turn the match around.
‘Maybe that’s what happened. I got a great start in the second and I just kept it going.”
There was bad news for fellow Scandinavian Holger Rune, who lost to American Brandon Nakashima 6-0, 6-2.
Rune, has been dealing with back problems at age 20 and will need a rush to fitness with the Paris Masters title to defend starting in early November.
