Top seed Holger Rune got down to business on Thursday by winning two consecutive matches for the first time since Wimbledon as he reached the Swiss Indoors quarter-finals 7-6 (2), 6-1 over Sebastian Baez.
The sixth-ranked Dane took a tighter grip on the last of eight spots in next month’s eight-man ATP Finals in Turin through his victory in 86 minutes.
The winner threw down seven aces among 22 winners,breaking his Argentine opponent twice and never facing a break point.
The year-end hopes of Casper Ruud took a hammering as the Norwegian lost 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (1) to Swiss young gun Dominic Stricker.
Ruud stands provisional 11th in the chase to the eight-man final starting November 12 in Turin but cannot advance further in this penultimate week of the regular Tour season after going down to defeat,
He did himself no favours by losing, missing out on a chance to gain on Turin rival Taylor Fritz, who lost in three hours to qualifier Alexander Shevchenko.
After reaching the US Open fourth round, Stricker lost his next three matches before stopping the rot this week at home.
“It’s a great feeling to win that match, it was a tough battle out here,” he said.
“I had some tough moments at the end of the second set and start of the third, but felt really good throughout the whole match.
“I’m just super-happy. I played an unbelievable tiebreak, I’m happy to be through.”
“It was difficult in the first set. I think he was serving well. I was struggling a little bit to find the rhythm on the return,” Rune said.
“But I stayed there, I kept my focus on my own serve and managed to raise my level in the tie-break. And from there, I built some better tennis.”
Victory stretched Rune’s points lead over Fritz to 135 points with only the Paris Bercy Masters next week to decide the final standings for Turin.
Rune will today face Tomas Martin Etcheverry, winner over Andy Murray this week.
