Ruud Revival: Survives Paul in Five at Roland-Garros

By Erik Gudris | Friday, May 29, 2026
Photo credit: NP Paribas Nordic Open Facebook

Casper Ruud admitted he prefers the cool temperatures of his native Norway to the current hot temperatures in Paris at Roland-Garros.

Yet it was Ruud’s hot serving down the stretch that helped book his place in the second week.

The 15th-seeded Ruud saved two match points to outlast No. 24 seed Tommy Paul in an entertaining five-set battle 4-6, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(4), 7-5 that took over four and a half hours.

Ruud, 27, a two-time Roland-Garros finalist, now finds himself back in the mix for a potential first-time major singles title in a draw that is completely wide open.

His next opponent is 19-year-old Joao Fonseca of Brazil, who upset No. 3 seed and former three-time champion Novak Djokovic in the fourth round.

“These kind of matches don’t deserve one winner. It’s very tough for Tommy to end up losing this match,” Ruud said after the match. “These kind of matches are what we work hard every day for. Tennis is such a demanding sport in many ways, physically, mentally. Not many sports do you need to be focused for five hours in a row “I think we both did our best, a fantastic job and in tennis there can only be one winner and today I’m lucky it’s me.”

The Ruud and Paul match promised to be a great one based on both men’s recent success during the clay court swing. 

Paul, 29, won the Houston ATP 250 title. Ruud recently reached the Italian Open ATP 1000 final eventually losing to World No. 1 Jannik Sinner.

Paul, with effective groundstrokes and serving, took hold of the first two sets.

Ruud, feeling the majority of the crowd’s support on Suzanne Lenglan court wanting more tennis, worked his way back into the match.

Ruud took the third set, yet had to battle in the fourth set.

In the fourth set, Ruud found himself down two match points while serving at 15-40, 4-5. With a pair of powerful back-to-back aces, Ruud eventually got to 5-all.

Ruud, who forced a deciding set with Paul, managed to open up a 3-0 lead.

Paul managed to break back and get near level terms with his opponent. Ruud earned a key service break late in the fifth set that helped him close out the five-set win.

Ruud, later in his press conference, spoke about playing Fonseca.

“It’s such an open tournament, which is kind of refreshing and to see that there will be a new slam champion in about a week or so. I think every player is aware of it.”

“I’m going to try to use the experiences that I’ve had of reaching far in slams to my advantage and see where that takes me, but you focus one match at a time. I have an incredible task ahead of me with a young special talent like Joao. He has already beaten top players in his career, so he knows what it takes.

“He’s a very nice kid, so I’m hoping for a good match.”

In the same section of the draw, No. 2  seed Alexander Zverev got through France’s Quentin Halys 6-4, 6-3, 5-7, 6-2.