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Ranking Reaction: Casper Ruud up to No. 12 after clay-court hat-trick

He was already the first Norwegian man to break the Top 30 and the Top 20, and he’s now on the verge of the Top 10.

ByJohn Berkok

Published Aug 02, 2021

Casper Ruud continues his march towards the Top 10 of the ATP rankings this week, rising from No. 14 to a new career-high of No. 12 on Monday after winning his third title in as many weeks in Kitzbuhel, Austria—he had won two other ATP 250 clay-court events the previous two weeks in Bastad, Sweden and Gstaad, Switzerland.

He’s the first man to win three ATP titles in three weeks since Andy Murray lifted back-to-back-to-back hard-court trophies in Bangkok, Tokyo and Shanghai in 2011.

“I was very nervous at the end, I knew what I was playing for,” Ruud said after his 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 win over Spain’s Pedro Martinez in the Kitzbuhel final on Saturday. “I’m just very excited and happy that these three weeks are over, and that I won all of them.”

Having become the first Norwegian man to reach the Top 30 in September of last year and the first into the Top 20 in May of this year, Ruud is now on the verge of the Top 10. He’s just 55 points behind No. 11 Pablo Carreño Busta (3,260 to 3,205).

Ruud’s father and coach, Christian Ruud, was the only previous Norwegian to reach the Top 50 on the ATP rankings, peaking at No. 39 in 1995.

Meanwhile, the winner of the other ATP event in Atlanta also made a notable move up the rankings. John Isner jumped from No. 35 to No. 30, putting an end to a 12-week period where no American man was in the Top 30. This was the only stretch since the ATP rankings began in 1973 where the U.S. was without a Top 30 player.

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Ruud heads into the summer hard-court season on an 11-match, three-tournament winning streak.

The man Isner beat in the Atlanta final, American teenager Brandon Nakashima, made his Top 100 debut this week, rising from No. 115 to No. 89.

Nakashima is a teenager for just one more day—he turns 20 on Tuesday.

Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi also made his Top 100 debut this week, rising from No. 111 to No. 95 after winning his third Challenger title of the year in Segovia, Spain.

With no points on offer at the Tokyo Olympics and no tour-level events for the women last week, there weren’t too many significant moves on the WTA rankings. But there were two WTA 125K events, and two former top players made some inroads back up the rankings by winning those titles. Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, a former No. 26, rose from No. 122 to No. 99 after winning in Belgrade, and Varvara Lepchenko, a former No. 19, went from No. 152 to No. 126 after triumphing in Charleston.

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