It was a case of experience over youth in Miami on Thursday, as veteran Yen-Hsun Lu defeated young Norwegian Casper Ruud 6-2, 6-1 in the first round.
Lu was dominant throughout, never dropping more than 25% of his points on serve from either first or second serve. Ruud in contrast struggled particularly on the second serve in the first set, yielding two breaks. Ruud was also broken twice in the second set as he failed to win even half his service points.
The win for Lu highlights that though Ruud is quickly becoming an accomplished player on clay, he still has some work to do in terms of matching the Top 100 on hard courts. The Norwegian had failed to qualify for the Australian Open, and has yet to register a win beyond Challenger-or qualifying level on hard courts.
Lu moves to a second round match with Alexander Zverev, the 16th seed.
In other matches, Tommy Robredo recorded just his second win of a limited 2017 schedule to date, defeating Nikoloz Basilashvili 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in just short of two hours. Robredo, who is in the draw by virtue of a protected ranking after an injury-hit 2016, had only won one other match against Fabio Fognini at the Argentina Open before this week.
Frenchman Adrian Mannarino edged veteran qualifier Benjamin Becker 7-6, 6-3. Becker had recorded his first back-to-back wins of the season since Memphis to emerge from qualifying. Mannarino edged a tight first set that had featured no break points in a tie break. The No.65 player than earned the lone break of the match to move into the second round.
Mannarino faced no break points, and will face 32nd seed Paolo Lorenzi. Mannarino will fancy his chances as he has a 1-0 head-to-head with Lorenzi, and Miami’s hard court surface will also likely benefit the Frenchman.
