casper ruud

PARIS — Clearly hampered by a bad left knee, two-time French Open finalist Casper Ruud dropped 13 of the last 14 games and lost 2-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-0 to Nino Borges in the second round at Roland-Garros on Wednesday, 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 — he was the runner-up to Rafael Nadal in 2022 and Novak Djokovic in 2023 — and this exit is his earliest at the tournament since bowing out in the second round in his debut in 2018.

He’s been taking pain-killing and anti-inflammatory pills the past several weeks, and 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.

Ruud said the worst shot for his knee is an open-stance backhand, in which he slides on his left foot, so he’s been avoiding it in practice.

“Certain movements out there are kind of what makes it painful. Certain shots are painful to do. 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,” said Ruud, who also reached the final at the 2023 U.S. Open. “Sometimes you kind of forget that this is a shot I shouldn’t go for.”

He 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 went on to win the title. Ruud pulled out of the Geneva Open, which was played last week.

Now he’ll 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.”

Tsitsipas knocked out

Meanwhile, two-time Grand Slam finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas went out in the second round, losing 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 to unseeded Matteo Gigante for his earliest exit at Roland-Garros since 2018.

The big-serving Greek reached the French Open final in 2021, losing in five sets to Novak Djokovic after winning the first two sets. He got into the quarterfinals here last year and the year before, and also made the semifinals at Roland-Garros in 2020, where he lost to Djokovic.

“I expected bigger things from myself these two weeks,” said Tsitsipas, who also lost in the second round in 2018. “I seemed to be playing immature sometimes during the match.”

The 26-year-old Greek berated himself for gifting Gigante some points. The 20th-seeded Tsitsipas hit 49 unforced errors on Court Simonne-Mathieu.

“I wasn’t fully present in the moment,” he said. “So I would describe that (as) immaturity, not knowing how to handle those situations.”

Tsitsipas was troubled throughout by the No. 167-ranked Gigante’s drop shot and athleticism.

Gigante sealed the victory with an ace, and the unheralded Italian received a friendly hug at the net from Tsitsipas.

“I have to give credit to my opponent, he played incredible tennis,” Tsitsipas said. “He handled the pressure moments very well.”

It was a second straight major with an early loss against an unseeded player for Tsitsipas — the 2023 Australian Open runner-up — following his first-round defeat to Alex Michelsen at the Australian Open earlier this year.

The 23-year-old Gigante faces 13th-seeded American Ben Shelton in the third round.

Swiatek cruises into third round

Iga Swiatek is always quite good against Emma Raducanu. Always quite good at the French Open, too, of course.

So it made sense that the latest matchup between these two Grand Slam champions, which came in the second round at Court Philippe-Chatrier, would end up with Swiatek on the right side of a 6-1, 6-2 result.

“I felt good on court, so I could do whatever I planned to, whatever I wanted to,” said Swiatek, who improved to 5-0 against Raducanu and ran her winning streak in the clay-court Grand Slam tournament to 23 matches.

“This place inspires me,” Swiatek said, “and makes me work harder.”

Truth be told, she was not made to work all that hard during this encounter, which lasted only 1 hour, 19 minutes in what Swiatek described as “tricky” wind.

The 23-year-old from Poland was in fine form against 2021 U.S. Open champion Raducanu, putting together a whopping 32-8 edge in winners and saving all four break points she faced while taking all eight of her service games.

This follows a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Raducanu at the Australian Open this January and now means that Swiatek has won all 10 sets the two have played against each other.

Swiatek, who agreed to accept a one-month suspension in a doping case late last year, owns a total of five major trophies, including one at the U.S. Open.

But it’s been a bit of a rough stretch for Swiatek by her lofty standards. She hasn’t been as far as a final at any tournament since winning the championship at last year’s French Open.

That title was her fourth in Paris and third in a row. Swiatek is aiming to become the only woman with four consecutive trophies at the French Open in the Open era, which began in 1968. Monica Seles and Justine Henin both also won three straight.

What else happened at the French Open on Wednesday?

Both defending champions were in action at Court Philippe-Chatrier. Carlos Alcaraz overcame a one-set blip to defeat Fabian Marozsan 6-1, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, and Iga Swiatek met 2021 U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu later.

Other women’s winners included 2024 runner-up Jasmine Paolini, Olympic gold medallist Zheng Qinwen and 18-year-old Canadian qualifier Victoria Mboko, while Olympic silver medallist and Wimbledon semifinalist Donna Vekic lost to unseeded American Bernarda Pera 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (10-3).

Men advancing included No. 8 Lorenzo Musetti and No. 25 Alexei Popyrin.

Who is playing at Roland-Garros on Thursday?

The second round concludes with 24-time major champion Novak Djokovic taking on France’s Corentin Moutet in Court Suzanne-Lenglen in a match that could feature a raucous atmosphere. 

French fans are likely to make a lot of noise at Court Philippe-Chatrier, too, because another one of their own, Richard Gasquet, could be playing the final match of his career when he takes on No. 1 Jannik Sinner. At night in Chatrier, No. 5 Jack Draper of Britain takes on yet another French veteran, Gael Monfils.

No. 2-seeded Coco Gauff, against Tereza Valentova, and No. 3 Jessica Pegula, against Ann Li in an all-American match, are among the top women in action, along with No. 6 Mirra Andreeva against Ashlyn Krueger of the United States.