Jenson Brooksby blew another huge hole in the Australian Open draw by sending second seed Casper Ruud tumbling out in the second round on Thursday, a day after his fellow American Mackenzie McDonald had ushered Rafa Nadal to the exit.
While top seed Nadal was hampered by injury in his loss, Norwegian Ruud was simply outplayed for all but a few games of his 6-3 7-5 6-7(4) 6-2 loss to the 22-year-old Californian over nearly four hours on Rod Laver Arena.
Those games came at the end of the third set when Ruud, who has recent Grand Slam pedigree after reaching the final at the French and U.S. Opens last year, saved three match points before running away with the tiebreak.
World number 39 Brooksby managed to recover his composure and his level to round out the win in the fourth set, moving on to a meeting with compatriot Tommy Paul.
“I think that he played great today, didn’t make many errors at all,” said Ruud.
