Rain came and disrupted the action on Day 1 of the Wimbledon but thanks to flexible timings rules, the games were pushed to later after being suspended for a while. One game, in particular, was a start-stop affair as the rain keeps on interrupting the battle between Casper Ruud and Alberto Ramos-Vinolas. The game was first interrupted before the midway point of the first set as Casper crafted a two-one game lead in the first set but after the interruption, Alberto showed immense grit and forced the game to reach a tiebreaker. Ultimately, Casper won 7:6, 7:6, 6:2 but the game was as intense as it gets.
Rain tested both athletes
A game that was supposed to finish by afternoon went o the deep evening and there is no doubt that the frustration of the start-stop scenario. Still, Casper kept his nerve and battled hard against Alberto who was forcing deep sets. Alberto came into this game with a lot of sparks and wanted to make a point but Ruud in the end kept his head calm and pulled through in an electric way.
A tough battle
While a three-set win in a five-set game may imply a one-sided affair, it was one of the brilliant games. When the rain interrupted during the first set, Ruud looked to control the game but after the resumption, Alberto wasn’t letting Casper go on big runs. Alberto established a rally-like game whereas Casper was attacking receiving points and didn’t let Alberto settle. There were occasions when Alberto could have closed the first set with a win but Ruud kept his head in the game.
The second game looked like a carbon copy of the first set, but the table flipped this time around as it was Alberto was pulling away from Alberto. As the game headed to the tiebreaker, Casper was making comebacks after comebacks to stay in the game. At one point, Alberto led the tiebreaker but then Ruud came with a flurry to close the deal. .
Then rain interrupted again to take the steam off an incredible contest. This is where Ruud took control of the game and avoided a tiebreaking scenario. Both players won an equal amount of service points with 75 each. Ruud won 14 Aces compared to 5 by Alberto Ramos-Vinolas. Another big difference was double faults as Casper committed three and Alberto committed seven.
Casper makes a statement
Young Casper looked brisk while moving on the court and this was a statement win. It had all components, winning close games, forcing the opponent on the backfoot, and generating a psychological assurance of not losing the game despite benign down. Apart from that, Ruud also made sure that he doesn’t let rain impact the scenery and this win will be huge to accumulate confidence ahead of the next round.
