By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Monday October 3, 2021
Norway’s Casper Ruud has jumped into contention for a spot in this November’s ATP Finals at Turin. The 22-year-old Norwegian claimed his fifth title of 2021 on Sunday in San Diego, defeating Cam Norrie 6-0, 6-2 and rose to No.8 in the Race to Turin Standings.
There is still plenty of tennis left to be played for the men, with Masters 1000 events this week at Indian Wells and in early November at Paris, as well as a 500-level event in Vienna (as well as several 250 level events).
Ruud: "Whoever Gets there in the End Deserves it More"
Ruud is just 150 points ahead of Hubert Hurkacz, who is currently ninth in the race. The Norwegian is 420 points clear of Jannik Sinner, who won the title at Sofia this weekend.
“I know that now I will jump to eight and it’s fun,” Ruud said after the final. “Jannik and Hubert are the guys behind me and within these two weeks we have all won a tournament each. It’s strong competition now and I think us three are the closest ones to capturing the last two spots, obviously there some big events being played soon – with Indian Wells there are 1,000 points on the line, also in Paris and Vienna [500] so there is no way I can kind of relax and think that I will make it.
“That’s fun, I think that’s how it should be. It should be a strong competition and whoever gets there in the end deserves it more, simple as that, but this win really helps me, in a part of the year where I haven’t previously done to well it’s great to have another tournament win.”
The good news for Ruud, Hurkacz and Sinner is that two of them will likely qualify for Turin, because the seventh-ranked player on the list, Rafael Nadal, is out for the season.
Here is the current Top 10 in the race:
1. Djokovic, 8370
2. Medvedev, 6380
3. Tsitsipas, 5470
4. Zverev, 4915
5. Rublev, 4120
6. Berrettini, 3955
7. Nadal, 2985
8. Ruud, 2925
9. Hurkacz, 2775
10. Sinner, 2505
11. Auger-Aliassime, 2320
12. Karatsev, 1940