– I got off to a good start, but two or three minutes before I went out, during the warm-up, I got a tiny little lock in my back. It’s nothing serious, it’s not an injury or anything I’ve struggled with. There is a small twist or rotation which means that it locks completely in the lower part of the back, explains Ruud TV 2.
– It’s crazy. Most people who have had a lock or kink in their back know that it is no fun. In tennis you rotate from side to side all the time, so it is unfavorable to get that in a tennis match, Ruud continues.
Ruud eventually lost the 2nd round match with the scores 6-0, 4-6, 4-6.
– It was a bit sad to see it, but it’s nothing to do with when you get a small bang, which is clearly the case for Casper, said TV 2 expert Christer Francke.
The first two sets were like night and day for Ruud. 6-0 in half an hour with Kecmanovic receiving treatment for a back problem, was followed by Ruud having to enter the treatment room in set number two.
The Norwegian appeared to stretch his lower back a bit before leaving the gravel.
– He is not the type to go out if there is nothing. I think he probably felt something, said Francke.
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Played up
For Kecmanovic, it got better after a meeting with the doctor:
– I asked the doctor how many pills he could give me to numb the pain. When it kicked in, I started to feel better, Kecmanovic told the organizer.
In the decisive set it ended with a loss, only the fourth on clay this season.
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Buddy
The loss was the first against Kecmanovic on clay. Ruud and Kecmanovic know each other well. They have played several doubles tournaments together, and they have also been on opposite sides of the net a number of times.
Ruud has reached the semi-finals in Rome three times. He debuted in the tournament in 2019 as a qualifier and made it to the quarterfinals. All four losses in the major tournament have been against a top ten player.
But in Rome this year, it stopped for Ruud, who is seen by many as the biggest candidate to win the Grand Slam tournament Roland-Garros later in May.
(©NTB)