Toronto Masters: Casper Ruud defeats Czech’s Jiri Lehecka in straight sets to reach last 16

Norwegian Casper Ruud, the No 3 seed, advanced to the last 16 of the Toronto Masters by winning against Jiri Lehecka 7-6 (6), 6-4 at the Aviva Centre on Tuesday.

The semi-finalist at last year’s ATP Masters 1000 event in Montreal fought back form a 4-0 deficit in the first set tiebreaker and also saved two setpoints while trailing 6-4 in it before coming back to win the tiebreaker 8-6. A break of serve in the seventh game of the second set helped him close out the win in one hour and 44 minutes.

“I just kind of said to myself, ‘Don’t give up,'” Ruud said in his on-court interview. “Honestly the last couple of losses I’ve had in the last month have been going away from me too quickly, I’ve lost a couple sets 0-6, which is not a good feeling.

“I was down 0/4 in that tie-break and I said, ‘I’m just going to somehow get my claws and keep holding onto this score. Luckily I got two mini-breaks back and then saved a couple set points. It’s sometimes just about luck, margins being on your side and luckily today they were on my side when I really needed it.”

“Towards the end of the second set, I was starting to feel better. I was hitting cleaner and serving much better,” Ruud said. “First set and second set, a little bit of a difference but I’m happy with the way I progressed through the match.”

The Norwegian will face the winner of the match between German Alexander Zverev, the No 13 seed, and Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the next round.