Casper Ruud has now won more matches than anyone this year after latest win in Barcelona

Casper Ruud has been doing a lot of winning lately, including recording the biggest win of his career—his first over a No. 1—with his upset over Novak Djokovic in Monte Carlo last weekend.

And in Barcelona on Thursday, Ruud reached another milestone.

His 6-1, 6-4 victory over Jordan Thompson in the third round of the ATP 500 clay-court event was his 26th win of the year, surpassing Jannik Sinner to become the new wins leader on the men’s tour.

MOST MATCH WINS THIS YEAR (men, tour-level):
26: Casper Ruud [26-7]
25: Jannik Sinner [25-2]
23: Alex de Minaur [23-8]
22: Grigor Dimitrov [22-6]
21: Hubert Hurkacz [21-9]
20: Alexander Zverev [20-7]

And there’s more: Ruud is actually the wins leader among the men and women this year. Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina are tied for most wins on the women’s tour, both notching their 23rd of '24 on Thursday at the WTA 500 indoor clay-court event in Stuttgart.

Thursday’s victory was a clay-court masterclass from Ruud—he finished with twice as many winners as unforced errors, 16 to 8, and the ratio was almost 3-to-1 on his forehand (11 to 4). Thompson was in the positives, too, with 17 winners and 14 unforced errors.

“I’m feeling like I’m in good form,” Ruud said afterwards. “Just trying to build on the confidence, on the wave that I’m on, trying to ride on it continuously, and yeah, it was a good match today.

“It was a tricky one, because Jordan has caused a lot of problems for me. I think he’s a fantastic player, especially on the serve, he comes to the net a lot—tricky—and he has a fantastic volley. Not so many guys come to the net anymore so it’s good to see, but sometimes it’s frustrating because you feel like you can’t pass him.”

Last year, it took Ruud until July to get to 26 wins—he reached that number with a victory over Lorenzo Musetti in the semifinals of Bastad on July 22nd. He finished last season with 37 wins.

“I’m feeling well physically and mentally. I’m in probably a better place than last year, something that we worked on over the pre-season this year. I’m just very happy to keep on the roll.

“Match wins didn’t come easily for me last year, so every match I can win is important, even though you might not think like that always. But last year taught me every match can be important, every match can be a turning point if things aren’t going great. This year I’m on a good streak, and I would like to keep it going.”

Now, the Norwegian is into his sixth quarterfinal of the year, tied for the most on the men’s tour with Denmark's Holger Rune.

Up next for the No. 6-ranked Ruud will be No. 40-ranked Italian Matteo Arnaldi, a 6-3, 6-0 winner over Argentinian qualifier Marco Trungelliti earlier in the day. Arnaldi beat Ruud in the pair’s only previous meeting, 6-3, 6-4, on the clay courts of Madrid last year.