Ruud wins a thriller against Paul and makes history as the first man from Norway to reach the second week at the US Open

Making history has a price! For Norwegian Casper Ruud, the No 5 seed, it was to spend nearly four hours and a half on the court on Friday in order to beat American Tommy Paul, the No 29 seed, in a five sets thriller (7-6 (3), 6-7 (5), 7-6 (2), 5-7, 6-0). The reward? Ruud, who played the semi-finals in Montréal after winning the title in Gstaad but lost in his opening match in Cincinnati, has become the first man from Norway to reach the second week here at the US Open.

That third round was a rollercoaster of tight games and momentum that keeps switching. Paul (61 winners, 82 unforced errors for 37 and 52 for Ruud) will for sure wonder for quite some time how he did not close it out in the third set when up 6-5 40-0 on his serve. He ended up losing that set and some precious energy that was clearly missing in the fifth against a player that will give you nothing and will run you down again and again. Still, what a crazy ride it’s been for Ruud the past couple of years, writing new pages for his country nearly every week.

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Ruud, finalist at Roland-Garros this year, will now play French lucky loser Corentin Moutet next. Ahead of his victory, the Norwegian defeated Kyle Edmund (6-3, 7-5, 6-2) and edged out Dutchman Tim van Rijthoven (6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-4, 6-4). Paul, ranked No 34, beat Spaniard Bernabe Zapata Miralles (4-6, 6-3, 2-6, 6-0, 7-5) and Sebastian Korda (6-0, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4) in the previous rounds of the Flushing Meadows.

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Tennis Majors

NEW YORK CITY (GRAND SLAM), OTHER THIRD-ROUND RESULTS

• Brandon Nakashima vs. Jannik Sinner
• Richard Gasquet vs. Rafael Nadal
• Ilya Ivashka vs. Lorenzo Musetti
• Diego Schwartzman vs. Frances Tiafoe
• Marin Čilić vs. Daniel Evans
• Jenson Brooksby vs. Carlos Alcaraz
• Denis Shapovalov vs. Andrey Rublev
• Cameron Norrie vs. Holger Rune
• Nick Kyrgios vs. J.J. Wolf
• Daniil Medvedev vs. Yibing Wu
• Pablo Carreno Busta vs. Alex De Minaur: friday
• Corentin Moutet beat Pedro Cachin: 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5
• Karen Khachanov (27) beat Jack Draper: 6-3, 4-6, 6-5 ret.
• Matteo Berrettini (13) beat Andy Murray: 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (1), 6-3
• Alejandro Davidovich Fokina beat Daniel Elahi Galan (Q): 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4