It was a real heavyweight clash awaiting in the second round on Wednesday evening between Casper Ruud and Marin Cilic, with a total of three Grand Slam-finals between them.
World No. 12 Ruud advanced to the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Nordic Open on Wednesday 15th after defeating the Croatian in straight sets, 7–6(5), 6–4.
In the first set, Cilic took an early 4–1 lead before Ruud mounted an impressive comeback to level the score at 5–5. The Norwegian maintained his composure in the tiebreak, edging out Cilic 7–5 to take the opener. In the second set, Ruud closed out the set 6–4 and secured his place among the final eight.
On Court 1, at the same time as Ruud and Cilić were playing, the all-Swedish Wild Card duo Erik Grevelius and Adam Heinonen faced the top-seeded Italians Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori in doubles. There was great energy around Court 1 as Grevelius and Heinonen kept pace with the Italian stars early on. Despite strong home support, it wasn’t quite enough this time – 3–6, 4–6 – but it was a performance that certainly bodes well for the future.
The final match of the day on Centre Court featured Leo Borg taking on Denis Shapovalov, the 2019 BNP Paribas Nordic Open champion. In 2021 he reached the final, and in 2022 the quarterfinals – so Shapovalov clearly enjoys playing in Stockholm, something that was evident from his opening match against Borg. Borg put up a strong fight and forced Shapovalov into three sets to the delight of the crowd on Wednesday evening. In the end, however, the Canadian was simply too strong. 6–2, 5–7, 6–1 and Shapovalov advances to the quarterfinals, where another Swede could await if Elias Ymer defeats Jacob Fearnley tomorrow, Thursday, during the evening session at the Royal Tennis Hall.
- This week was a big step forward for me, said a dissapointed but optimistic Borg after the match.
Other singles winners of the day were Sebastian Korda, who battled through a real thriller against Kamil Majchrzak, Aleksandar Kovacevic, who advanced after Camilo Ugo Carabelli was forced to retire in the third set, and Márton Fucsovics, who impressed against Jesper de Jong.
