Ruud Survives Heat and Safiullin in Rollercoaster Paris Opener

By Erik Gudris | Saturday, May 23, 2026
Photo credit: Italian Open Facebook

Casper Ruud appeared to have all the momentum. 

But then stifling heat and a determined opponent almost derailed his dreams of another deep run in Paris.

However, the two-time former Roland Garros finalist and current No. 15 seed Ruud managed to find a way into the second round over Russia’s Roman Safiullin 6-2, 7-6(5), 5-7, 0-6, 6-2.

“Well, a bit of everything. Tired, but of course happy. I feel humble,” Ruud said after the match. “I want to thank the crowd for pushing me. I was close to being on the way home, honestly. In the end of the third and fourth set I felt quite horrible and dizzy. It was really hard to see the ball.

“I think my body temperature was too high, I was not able to cool it down with the temperature here today. Luckily I was able to just give myself some time to breathe in the fourth set to see if I could calm down and let the cramps and high temperature ease off. Luckily I was able to. It was a really tough match.”

Rudd, who recently reached the Italian Open final, looked poised to make it an early day in his opening roun on Court Simone-Mathieu.

Rudd jumped out to a two sets to love lead and then led 5-3, 40-0 in the third set over the current World No. 141 Safiullin. 

But Ruud would miss out on five match points. From there, the match took a surreal turn for both men.

With temperatures over 90 degrees in Paris, Ruud appeared to suffer physically late in the third set. 

Ruud lost the third set 7-5. In the fourth set, Ruud could barely move on court and ended up taking two medical timeouts to have his vitals checked.

Safiullin, leading 5-0, took a medical timeout of his own to deal with an injury. While Safiullin eventually won the set 6-0, the extended break seemed to help Ruud more.

When they started the final set after both taking a bathroom break, Ruud looked fresher. The Norwegian star secured an early service break and never looked back.

On his sixth match point, Ruud finished the hard earned five set win.

Ruud will next face Hamad Medjedovic in the second round.