PARIS — Clearly hampered by a bad left knee, two-time French Open finalist Casper Ruud dropped 13 of the last 14 games and lost 2-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-0 to Nuno Borges in the second round at Roland-Garros on Wednesday, then revealed he had been playing in pain off and on throughout the clay court season for tennis.
The seventh-seeded Ruud reached at least the semifinals each of the past three years in Paris — he was the runner-up to Rafael Nadal in 2022 and to Novak Djokovic in 2023 — and this exit is his earliest at this Grand Slam tournament since bowing out in the second round in his debut in 2018.
He’s been taking painkilling and anti-inflammatory pills the past several weeks, and did so again Wednesday. Ruud said the knee still began bothering him in the first set against Borges, who is ranked 41st on the ATP Tour and became the first Portuguese man to get to the French Open’s third round.
Ruud said the worst shot for his knee is an open-stance backhand, in which he slides on his left foot, so he’s been avoiding it in practice.
“Certain movements out there are kind of what makes it painful. Certain shots are painful to do. When you’re playing matches, you can’t really control it in the same way (as in practice). You do everything you can to get to every ball,” said Ruud, who also reached the final at the 2022 U.S. Open. “Sometimes you kind of forget that this is a shot I shouldn’t go for.”
He was visited by a trainer and took some pills during Wednesday’s match, but nothing seemed to help.
“It’s a Slam. I love this tournament,” Ruud said. “Looking back, I tried my best to continue (and tried) to avoid the shots that are hurting. But towards the end, there were also other movements that started hurting, so it wasn’t ideal.”
He said the problems began in his first clay event of the stretch leading to the French Open, at Monte Carlo in April, and that he had medical exams a couple of weeks later in Madrid — where he went on to win the title. Ruud pulled out of the Geneva Open, which was played last week.
Now he’ll have more tests done.
“I took five days completely off at home. It wasn’t enough to make the pain go away,” Ruud said. “I wish I could stay here longer.”
Also on Wednesday, both reigning singles champions were in action at Court Philippe-Chatrier.
Carlos Alcaraz overcame a one-set blip to defeat Fabian Marozsan 6-1, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, while Iga Swiatek had far less trouble dispatching 2021 U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu 6-1, 6-2 to extend her French Open winning streak to 23 matches
Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka won 6-3, 6-1 against Jil Teichmann, and other women’s winners included 2024 runner-up Jasmine Paolini, Olympic gold medalist Zheng Qinwen and 18-year-old qualifier Victoria Mboko. Olympic silver medalist and Wimbledon semifinalist Donna Vekic lost to unseeded Bernarda Pera 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (10-3).
No. 10 Holger Rune beat unseeded Emilio Nava 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-3 and No. 12 seed American Tommy Paul rallied from two sets down to beat Marton Fucsovics. Other men advancing included No. 8 Lorenzo Musetti and No. 25 Alexei Popyrin, but No. 20 Stefanos Tsitsipas, the 2021 French Open runner-up, lost to unseeded Matteo Gigante.
The second round concludes Thursday with 24-time major champion Novak Djokovic taking on France’s Corentin Moutet in Court Suzanne-Lenglen in a match that could feature a raucous atmosphere. French fans are likely to make a lot of noise at Court Philippe-Chatrier, too, because another one of their own, Richard Gasquet, could be playing the final match of his career when he takes on No. 1 Jannik Sinner.
At night in Chatrier, No. 5 Jack Draper takes on yet another French veteran, Gael Monfils. No. 2-seeded Coco Gauff, against Tereza Valentova, and No. 3 Jessica Pegula, against Ann Li, are among the top women in action, along with No. 6 Mirra Andreeva against Ashlyn Krueger.