Ruusuvuori Continues His First-Round Dominance Of The French In Marseille

Emil Ruusuvuori, Marseille, ATP Tour, Open 13 Provence
Emil Ruusuvuori (photo: Open 13 Provence)

MARSEILLE/WASHINGTON, February 7, 2024 (by Michael Dickens)

Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori is in the midst of a five-match winning streak in ATP Tour-level opening rounds, which dates back to last summer. Three of these wins have come against Frenchmen. The latest French victim is up-and-coming 19-year-old Luca Van Assche, who fell to Ruusuvuori in the first round of the ATP 250 indoor hard court Open 13 Provence in Marseille, France on Wednesday.

Like he did with Corentin Moutet at Cincinnati in 2023 and Benjamin Bonzi last month in Hong Kong, the 55th-ranked Ruusuvuori continued his domination of French opponents, defeating No. 68 Van Assche, 7-6 (2), 6-4, in an hour and 32 minutes to advance to the second round in the Bouches du Rhône.

Ruusuvuori, whose career-high ranking of No. 37 came almost a year ago when he was a quarterfinalist in Miami, dropped just three points on his first serve and won 81 percent of his service points overall. He broke Van Assche’s serve twice – both times in the second set – and overcame an 0-2 deficit. By the end, Ruusuvuori outpointed Van Assche 69-54 to garner his seventh victory of 2024 in nine matches.

“It was very tight the whole match,” Ruusuvuori said in his on-court interview. “Luca is one of the most dangerous up-and-coming players. He’s very good. I think we’re going to play many more times. I’m happy to take this one in two sets.”

The 24-year-old Helsinki native began the season strong with four straight victories in Hong Kong en route to reaching the final before losing to World No. 5 Andrey Rublev. Then, Ruusuvuori pushed World No. 3 Daniil Medvedev to the brink of defeat in the second round at the Australian Open, after winning the first two sets before falling in five. Last week, he won his rubber over João Sousa in straight sets in Finland’s Davis Cup tie 3-1 victory over Portugal.

On Thursday, Ruusuvuori will take on No. 5 seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain for a berth in Friday’s quarterfinals against No. 4 seed Ugo Humbert of France.

“He’s a very tough, good-moving all-around player,” Ruusuvuori said, “It’s going to be another tough match.”

Khachanov finally beats Bautista Agut on a hard court

It took Karen Khachanov five tries to beat Roberto Bautista Agut in a hard court match but he’s finally done it. The No. 3 seed Khachanov from Russia beat the 102nd-ranked Spaniard, 6-2, 6-2, in one hour and 16 minutes to advance to Friday’s quarterfinal round against either No. 7 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada or No. 50 Zhang Zhizhen of China, who play their second-round match on Thursday.

Although Bautista Agut leads their career head-to-head 6-4, on Wednesday evening it was all Khachanov. The 2018 Marseille champion fired 14 aces, the last one coming on his third match-point opportunity. He won 81 percent of his first-serve points, saved the only break point he faced and converted each of his four break-point opportunities against Bautista Agut. Khachanov outpointed his opponent 55-39 in collecting his fourth win of the season and seventh lifetime in Marseille.

“I think today was like a match on a clay court, actually,” Khachanov said in his on-court interview. “The court is really slow, the balls are big, heavy. To be honest, playing Roberto is always a tough match. He’s always going to fight. Three match points. I’m really happy to win.”

Murray disappointed but not ready to give up

Following his sixth straight first-round loss at tour-level, 7-5, 6-4 against No. 66 Tomas Machac of the Czech Republic on Tuesday, Great Britain’s Andy Murray said in his post-match news conference that no number of losses can change what he’s achieved in his storied tennis career.

The 36-year-old Briton said he’s willing to play Challengers like he did in 2023 (when he won three titles), if necessary. However, don’t look for the 49th-ranked Murray to give up on doing what brings him much joy and satisfaction.

“Maybe I have to play in Challengers to build confidence,” said Murray, who fell to 0-4 this season with his latest loss and has lost nine of his last 10 – the worst stretch of his career. Among the defeats, he’s lost twice to World No. 11 Alex de Minaur and twice to No. 29 Tomas Martin Etcheverry.

Murray said it’s been frustrating to him that he’s been unable to translate his good practice form into match play.

“You can take time away and practice and work on your game and try to get some positive feelings again,” he explained, “but what happens on the practice court doesn’t always translate into the matches.”

Looking back, Murray said that while it might have been easy enough to give up on his career after he underwent hip surgery, “I’m playing because I love the game. I still really enjoy the practicing and the training and the traveling. Right now, the competing is difficult for sure. …

“I’m in a totally different place than I was in 2016 [when I was ranked No. 1]. And a couple of losses now will not change what I achieved throughout my career.”

Around the Palais de Sports

No. 4 seed Ugo Humbert of France advanced to the quarterfinal round with a 2-6, 6-1, 6-3 win over 86th-ranked French qualifier Hugo Gaston in a battle of lefties Wednesday evening.

Humbert, who has reached the semifinals in both of his previous Marseille appearances, in 2019 and 2021, has won eight straight opening-round matches dating back to Beijing last year.

Against Gaston, the 21st-ranked Humbert rallied from a set down and a break down in the final set. He capitalized on Gaston’s second serve and won 68 percent of those points. Humbert broke his opponent’s serve five times in 11 attempts and outpointed Gaston 78-66.

No. 7 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada struck his eighth ace on match point and won all but two first-serve points en route to a confidence-building 78-minute 6-2, 7-5 victory over 101st-ranked French wild card Quentin Halys.

Twice a Marseille finalist in 2020 and 2022, the 28th-ranked Auger-Aliassime saved the only break point he faced from Halys, in his very first service game, and broke his opponent three times. He outpointed Halys 69-46 to advance to Thursday’s second round against No. 50 Zhang Zhizhen of China.

“I love playing well here,” said Auger-Aliassime, who improved to 8-3 in Marseille. “Twice a finalist, so obviously I’ve won some matches here but did t go all the way to the end. Let’s see if I c. Be part of another final here, but the week is so young and there is till a lot of tennis to play.”

No. 66 Tomas Machac of the Czech Republic advanced to the quarterfinal round with a 6-3, 6-2 upset of No. 6 seed Lorenzo Musetti of Italy in an hour and 23 minutes. A day after defeating No. 49 Andy Murray, Machac took care of No. 27 Musetti by winning 61 percent of his opponent’s second-serve points. He also converted four of five break-point opportunities and outpointed the Italian 63-49.

Next, Machac will face either No. 1 seed Hubert Hurkacz of Poland or No. 56 Alexander Shevchenko of Kazakhstan, who play Thursday.

Doubles No. 1 seeds Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands and Michael Venus of New Zealand, ranked 37th, were upset by Andreas Mies of Germany and John-Patrick Smith of Australia, 7-5, 6-3. The German/Aussie duo broke their opponents’ serve three times during the 79-minute match and outpointed them 60-49.

Also, No. 4 seeds Yuki Bhambri of India and Robin Haase of the Netherlands, ranked No. 101, were eliminated in the opening round by Americans Sebastian Korda and Vasil Kirkov, 1-6, 6-4, 12-10.

Wednesday’s Open 13 Provence results

Thursday’s Open 13 Provence order of play

By the numbers

Felix Auger-Aliassime has made the final in his last two appearances at the Open 13 Provence (lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas in 2020; lost to Andrey Rublev in 2022). He has won 16 of his last 18 matches against Frenchmen, including four in Marseille (Herbert, Simon, Tsonga, Halys).

“Quotable …”

“It’s never easy [to play someone for the first time]. We’ve practiced together before and he’s been on Tour for a few years. I know him and his qualities. I think I started the perfect way: hitting my targets, being aggressive, keeping him on defense. … In the end, I think I played a great, complete match.”

— No. 7 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime, during his on-court interview, describing his win over Quentin Halys.

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