How is the road to Turin after the defeats of Ruud and Rublev in Paris? | ATP Tour

PIF ATP Live Race to Turin

How is the road to Turin after the defeats of Ruud and Rublev in Paris?

De Minaur, Dimitrov and Tsitsipas, the beneficiaries of these results

October 29, 2024

The eliminations of Casper Ruud and Andrey Rublev in the second round of the Rolex Paris Masters on Tuesday could have important implications for the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin.

In a back-and-forth battle with Jordan Thompson, Ruud fell 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-4, while Francisco Cerúndolo defeated sixth seed Rublev 7-6(6), 7-6( 5) to record his 100th victory on the circuit.

Ruud is currently seventh in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin with 3,855 points. Rublev, ranked eighth, is 135 points behind the Norwegian to close the classification positions.

However, neither player has been able to add to the ATP Masters 1000 under. Meanwhile, other candidates to qualify such as Álex de Miñaur (ninth), Grigor Dimitrov (10th) and Stefanos Tsitsipas (twelfth) are still alive and could continue climbing positions.

De Minaur would surpass Rublev if he reached the quarterfinals. If De Minaur and Tsitsipas met in the semi-finals in Paris and Tsitsipas won the title, both players would surpass Rublev and Ruud.

If De Minaur were to lift the trophy, he would jump to sixth place, and even fifth if Taylor Fritz suffered an early defeat. Both Dimitrov and Tsitsipas triumphing in Paris would catapult them to sixth place in the Live Race, which will stop counting next week after the Belgrade Open and the Moselle Open in Metz.

In Tuesday’s final match, Ruud forced a deciding set, but it was Thompson who held firm to move 4-3 ahead in the Lexus ATP Head2Head series between the two.

“I think my ball is a little flatter, it doesn’t give him as much time to finish on both groundstrokes,” said Thompson, who defeated Ruud in the Los Cabos final to claim his first ATP Tour title in February. “But he is also playing well on hard courts, I have only managed to beat him a couple of times.”

“Today I found it much more difficult, he was hitting much deeper and firmer, but luckily I managed to get through.”

Earlier, Cerúndolo recovered from a break point deficit in both sets to defeat Rublev and record his 100th victory at tour level. The Argentine was relentless in attack, winning 86 percent (7/8) of net points, according to Infosys ATP Stats.