The Hamilton Spectator

French Open runner-up Ruud loses

Becomes seventh of top 11-ranked male players to be knocked out of the grass-court tennis major

CHRIS LEHOURITES

WIMBLEDON, ENGLAND Yet another of the highest-ranked players on the men’s tour is out of the tournament at Wimbledon. Novak Djokovic or Rafael Nadal are not among them.

Casper Ruud, the runner-up to Nadal at this year’s French Open, became the seventh of the top 11ranked male players to be out of the grass-court Grand Slam for either losing early, injury, illness or being banned.

Ruud, who was seeded third but ranked sixth, lost to Ugo Humbert of France, 3-6, 6-2, 7-5, 6-4, on Wednesday in the second round.

Djokovic, a six-time Wimbledon champion who is looking for his fourth straight title at the All England Club, beat Thanasi Kokkinakis of Australia, 6-1, 6-4, 6-2, to reach the third round.

Nadal advanced to the second round Tuesday.

The third-ranked Djokovic, No. 4 Nadal, No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas and No. 7 Carlos Alcaraz are the only players in the top 11 remaining in the draw. Top-ranked Daniil Medvedev is out because of a ban on Russians over the war in Ukraine, No. 2 Alexander Zverev is injured, No. 8 Andrey Rublev of Russia is also banned, No. 9 Félix AugerAliassime and No. 10 Hubert Hurkacz lost, and No. 11 Matteo Berrettini withdrew after testing positive for COVID-19.

Djokovic hosted Boris Becker’s girlfriend and the three-time Wimbledon champion’s son in his box for the match. Becker, who coached the Serb, was sentenced to 2 ⁄2

1 years in prison in Britain for illicitly transferring large amounts of money and hiding assets after he was declared bankrupt.

“I’ve just been trying to give support to people around him, his closest people, his family members, because I consider Boris really a family member, someone that I greatly appreciate, respect and care about,” Djokovic said. “We’ve been through a lot together during those three years of collaboration. Our relationship dates back even before that. Of course, after we finished our professional relationship, we always stayed close, him with my team, with my agents, with my family.”

In the women’s tournament, three of the top 11-ranked players were eliminated Wednesday.

Anett Kontaveit lost to Juke Niemeier of Germany, 6-4, 6-0, while 2017 Wimbledon champion Garbiñe Muguruza was beaten by Greet Minnen, 6-4, 6-0, and U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu lost to Caroline Garcia, 6-3, 6-3.

Kontaveit was seeded second at Wimbledon but is ranked third, while Muguruza was seeded ninth and ranked 10th, and Raducanu was seeded 10th and ranked 11th.

Kontaveit said she had COVID-19 in recent months and has struggled to get her energy back.

“I had it a couple, two months ago, I think, or something like that. Then I tried to come back very quickly. I started training. It was low intensity, but I was still training every day. I think that was where I went wrong,” the 26-year-old Estonian said.

Among the winners were No. 6 Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic, who beat Tereza Martincova, 7-6 (1), 7-5, in a match that started Tuesday, No. 8 Jessica Pegula of the U.S., No. 12 Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia and No. 15 Angelique Kerber of Germany.

SPORTS

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2022-06-30T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-06-30T07:00:00.0000000Z

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