Google News
Casper Ruud admitted that Jenson Brooksby was "annoyingly good" during their Australian Open second-round match and gave the full credit to the American for the performance he delivered. Ruud, who was seeded at No 2 in the Australian Open main draw, suffered a shock exit after 39th-ranked Brooksby handed him a 6-3 7-5 6-7 (4) 6-2 loss.
"I said, well played, and that he was annoyingly good today. I said good luck for the rest of the tournament, as well. He played great today, ended up winning many of the longer rallies and had sort of an answer to all the questions that I asked him," Ruud said of playing Brooksby, per the Australian Open website.
Also, Ruud admitted that Brooksby was making the right decisions throughout the entire match. "There were many sort of interesting rallies where we were rallying back and forth, playing a little - not cat and mouse, but he had attacked, maybe I came back and was controlling the point, and then somehow he guessed right or came back in the rally again," Ruud reflected.
Ruud fell short in his bid to stage a comeback against Brooksby
Up by two sets, Brooksby also had a 5-2 lead in the third set and everything was pointing toward the American beating Ruud in three sets. Then, Ruud saved three match points in the ninth game to get the break back and eventually force a tie-break - which he won to send the match into a fourth set.
But just after stealing the third set, Ruud suffered back-to-back breaks at the start of the fourth set as Brooksby was able to close out the match in four sets. After losing to Brooksby, Ruud admitted the 20-year-old American has an interesting game to watch.
"It's fun to watch him, if he's on and I have a chance to watch, I think it's interesting, because he makes tennis looks a little different from any other player. He plays really well. He plays flat, he defends great from both sides," Ruud said of Brooksby's tennis.