Ruud too strong for Hurkacz as he moves into Monte-Carlo quarters

Norwegian Casper Ruud, the No 8 seed, reached the quarter-finals of the Monte-Carlo Masters by winning against Pole Hubert Hurkacz, the No 10 seed, 6-4, 6-2 at Monte-Carlo Country Club on Thursday evening.

Ruud, ranked No 10, will face the winner of the match between Italian lucky loser Lorenzo Sonego and Frenchman Ugo Humbert, the No 14 seed, next.

Ruud, a two-time finalist at Roland-Garros, admitted he had been a little fresher than Hurkacz, who won the title in Estoril last weekend. And the Norwegian said he is trying to be a little more aggressive, both on the court and in his mindset.

“I turned 25 a few months ago,” he said. “I told myself I want to be in the quarter-finals at least in all of the clay-court events I play. If that means five or six quarter-finals then that’s great but hopefully I’ll do better in one or two of them.

“I’ve had some good results on clay in the last few years, especially at Roland-Garros, so I have got some self-belief.”

The Norwegian beat Chilean Alejandro Tabilo (6-2, 6-4) in the previous round of the Monte-Carlo tournament.

In the previous rounds of the Monte-Carlo tournament, Hurkacz, ranked No 8, edged out Jack Draper (6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (2)) and won against Spanish qualifier Roberto Bautista Agut (7-5, 7-6 (4)).

Monte-Carlo Masters 1000, other last 16 results (Monte-Carlo Country Club, clay, EUR 5.950.575, most recent results first):

• Lorenzo Sonego vs. Ugo Humbert: thursday
• Jannik Sinner (2) beat Jan-Lennard Struff: 6-4, 6-2
• Holger Rune (7) beat Grigor Dimitrov (9): 7-6 (9), 3-6, 7-6 (2)
• Novak Djokovic (1) beat Lorenzo Musetti: 7-5, 6-3
• Stefanos Tsitsipas (12) beat Alexander Zverev (5): 7-5, 7-6 (3)
• Karen Khachanov (15) beat Daniil Medvedev (4): 6-3, 7-5
• Alex De Minaur (11) beat Alexei Popyrin: 6-3, 6-4