Ruud, Norrie earn Vienna wins to boost hopes of reaching ATP Finals
The Norwegian sits seventh in the ATP Race to Turin, with two spots still to be filled
Antoine Couvercelle – Panoramic
ATP500 Vienna | Draw | Schedule
The race for the remaining two spots in the ATP Finals looks set to go down to the wire after Casper Ruud, Cameron Norrie and Felix Auger-Aliassime all won their respective matches at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna on Tuesday.
With six men already qualified, Ruud cemented his seventh position in the ATP Race to Turin with a 7-5, 7-6 (2) win over South Africa’s Lloyd Harris to book his place in the second round with his 50th win of 2021. He’ll play Lorenzo Sonego of Italy or Dominik Koepfer of Germany, who play on Wednesday.
With eighth-placed Rafael Nadal having already ended his season through injury, Norway’s Ruud began the week 60 points above Hubert Hurkacz, whose chances of qualifying for Turin were hit by his first-round loss to Andy Murray.
Indian Wells winner Norrie stays in the hunt for ATP Finals berth
Britain’s Cameron Norrie picked up where he left off in Indian Wells, easing past Marton Fucsovics of Hungary 7-6 (4), 6-1 to set up a second-round meeting with another contender, Felix Auger-Aliassime.
Norrie trailed 4-2 in the opening set but once he’d won the tiebreak there was only one result likely and he pulled away for victory. The Briton’s victory lifts him above Jannik Sinner into 10th spot, though the Italian is also in the field this week, due to play his first-round match on Wednesday. Both Norrie and Sinner can now overtake Hurkacz should they reach the semi-finals or better.
Auger-Aliassime needs a big week to get back in touch but the Canadian, sitting more than 500 points behind Norrie, made a winning start to the ATP 500 event, cruising past Ricardas Berankis 6-3, 6-2.
Novak Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexander Zverev, Andrey Rublev and Matteo Berrettini have all qualified for the eight-man ATP Finals.
Second seed Zverev also advanced, beating Filip Krajinovic, of Serbia, 6-2, 7-5 to reach round two where he will meet Alex de Minaur.
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