Casper Ruud of Oslo, Norway is the 2024 Barcelona Open champion. On Sunday, Ruud, the third seed, defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, the fifth seed, in the final, 7-5, 6-3. This was the second straight week that Ruud and Tsitsipas played against each other in the ATP Final on clay. In the Monte Carlo Masters a week ago on April 14, Tsitsipas came through with an easy 6-1, 6-4 win.
The major difference in the two matches came down to Ruud capitalizing on his break point opportunities. In the Monte Carlo final, Ruud had eight chances, but did not capitalize on one single chance. In the Barcelona final, Rudd had six chances, and broke Tsitsipas thrice. Tsitsipas meanwhile only had one break point opportunity the entire match in Barcelona and broke Ruud once.
Ruud’s serve was working well. He had a first serve percentage of 80% (compared to 57% for Tsitsipas). Ruud also won 78% of the points on his first and second serve. Tsitsipas only won 63% of his points on his first serve and 59% on the second serve.
In the Barcelona Open this week, Ruud beat three seeded players. In addition to beating Tsitsipas, Ruud beat Jordan Thompson of Australia, the 14th seed, 6-1, 6-4 in the third round, and Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina 7-6, 6-4 in the semifinals. In the semifinal win over Etcheverry, Ruud also broke his opponent three times in six opportunities.
This was Ruud’s 11th career title on the ATP Tour. However, it was his first tournament title at a 500-point event or better. Nine of Ruud’s prior titles have been on clay. He previously won the 2020 and 2022 Argentina Opens, the 2021 and 2022 Geneva Opens, the the 2021 and 2022 Swiss Opens in Gstaad, the 2021 Swedish Open, the 2021 Austrian Open in Kitzbuhel, and the 2023 Estoril Open in Portugal.
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