Clearly hampered by a bad left knee, two-time French Open finalist Casper Ruud dropped 13 of the last 14 games, lost 2-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-0 to Nuno Borges in the second round at Roland Garros on Wednesday and then revealed he had been playing in pain off-and-on throughout the clay-court season.
The seventh-seeded Ruud reached at least the semifinals each of the past three years in Paris — finishing as the runner-up to Rafael Nadal in 2022 and Novak Djokovic in 2023 — and this is his earliest exit at the tournament since bowing out in the second round in his debut in 2018.
Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz overcame a one-set blip to defeat Fabian Marozsan 6-1, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.
For the past several weeks, Ruud has been taking pain-killing and anti-inflammatory pills, and he did so again Wednesday. But Ruud said the knee began bothering him in the first set against Borges, who is ranked 41st and became the first Portuguese man to get to the French Open’s third round. Borges will face Alexei Popyrin in the third round after the Australian player eased past Alejandro Tabilo in straight sets.
Ruud said the worst shot for his knee is an open-stance backhand, in which he slides on his left foot, so he has been avoiding it in practice.
“Certain movements out there are kind of what makes it painful. Certain shots are painful to do,” said Ruud, who also reached the final at the 2023 US Open. “When you’re playing matches, you can’t really control it in the same way [as in practice]. You do everything you can to get to every ball. Sometimes you kind of forget that this is a shot I shouldn’t go for.”
Ruud was visited by a trainer and took some pills during Wednesday’s match, but nothing seemed to help.
“It’s a Slam. I love this tournament,” Ruud said. “Looking back, I tried my best to continue [and tried] to avoid the shots that are hurting. But towards the end, there were also other movements that started hurting, so it wasn’t ideal.”
He said the problems began in his first clay event of the pre-French Open stretch, at Monte Carlo in April, and that he had medical exams a couple of weeks later in Madrid, where he won the title. Ruud pulled out of the Geneva Open, which was played last week.
Now he will have more tests done.
“I took five days completely off at home. It wasn’t enough to make the pain go away,” Ruud said. “I wish I could stay here longer.”
Alcaraz was toppled by Marozsan on the clay courts of Rome two years ago and had moments of vulnerability on Court Philippe-Chatrier on Wednesday, but the 22-year-old ensured there would be no early ending to his bid for a fifth Grand Slam title.
“It was a great match. I started playing well,” Alcaraz said. “In the first set, I had really high confidence. In the second set, he started to play much better and he was really aggressive. He didn’t miss at all, so it was a little difficult to deal with his game in the second set, but I’m really happy I stayed strong and refreshed myself.”
Alcaraz also got to do something he always wanted: sing to the fans at Roland Garros, using a familiar-sounding refrain often belted out by crowds.
Perhaps fittingly, it is to the tune of a Spanish paso doble. It goes “Po-po-po-po-po-po po-lolo” — as the French write it — and is followed by a pause and then an “Olé.”
Alcaraz later said he had been thinking about doing that song after an interview last year, but it never happened.
“I just love it here and had some really great moments,” Alcaraz said. “I hope people when they left the court, they left with a smile.”
Alcaraz will next face Damir Dzumhur, who shrugged off a nasty fall to outlast big-serving Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard 7-6 (4), 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
Lorenzo Musetti continued his renaissance when he eased into the third round with a no-nonsense 6-4, 6-0, 6-4 victory against Colombian lucky loser Daniel Galan on Wednesday.
The eighth-seeded Musetti’s main trouble was intermittent rain on Court Simonne-Mathieu as he set up a meeting with Mariano Navone, who defeated American Reilly Opelka 6-1, 7-6 (1), 6-3.
“It was a solid performance from the beginning until the end,” Musetti said. “I had some ups and downs during the first and the third set. Definitely I cannot complain about the level that I’m showing.”
Musetti, who reached the final at the Monte Carlo Masters and the semifinals in Madrid and Rome in the three big clay-court tournaments before Roland Garros, said things started clicking into place in Monte Carlo Masters, calling it a “boost of confidence.”
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
