Casper Ruud unleashes the 'serve-bot' within

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The seventh day of competition in this 2026 Australian Open was sealed by Casper Ruud with a solid victory over Marin Cilic. A match that showed us that the Norwegian is also capable of relying on his tremendous serve.

In total, there were 25 aces, his personal record in the Australian Open. Hence, it took the Croatian some time to find his comfort on the court, although the significantly favorable head-to-head record for Casper Ruud (4-0) already hinted at what we could expect today. Once again, victory belonged to the Norwegian, saving a fifth set that seemed secured but managed to avoid. In his post-match interview with Barbra Schett, the 13th-ranked player once again mentioned his wife, who is about to give birth to their first daughter. Meaning that his stay in Melbourne could be just a matter of hours.

Admiration for Marin Cilic

"Certainly, Marin is an incredible player, even at this age, I believe he is already 37 or 38 years old. He continues to hit the ball as he did on day one, playing really well; it's a pleasure to watch him compete at this stage. He has had a spectacular career, reaching a final here a few seasons ago, as well as winning the US Open and being a finalist at Wimbledon, along with reaching semifinals at Roland Garros. He almost has finals in all four Grand Slam tournaments. Matches against him are always very tight, very tough, so I am happy to have avoided going to a fifth set; it's much better to be here doing this post-match interview."

Frustrated by the Croatian's serve

"Since the end of the second set, I hadn't been getting any chances to break Marin's serve, so this situation was starting to frustrate me. It seemed impossible to get a break point; in fact, I could hardly compete in any of his service games. Internally, I was already accepting that we were headed to a fifth set; I had thoroughly accepted it and was preparing as best as I could to face that decisive set. Suddenly, a couple of errors came from his racket, and there I was to keep one more ball in play. Fortunately for me, there were some points that went my way in that final game; that's tennis."

His match with the most 'aces' in the tournament

"Who knows, maybe I'm becoming a super server (laughs). It's not usual to hit 25 aces, 25 free points in a match with my serve, so I am very pleased that my shoulder is working this well. Hopefully, we can maintain this level for the next match against Ben Shelton. In his case, hitting only 25 aces in a match might mean having had a bad day, but in my case, it's much rarer to achieve."

Casper Ruud, prepared to leave Australia at any moment

"I hope she didn't get too stressed about tonight's match, although I admit that I was feeling a lot of stress during the match, especially in that final stretch. You can never control where a tennis match might end up heading; all you can do is paddle to stay in the fight. I am looking forward to seeing her in a few days, either when my work here is done, or when I receive a call from her telling me to come back home. Anyway, I can only thank Maria for all she is doing, for giving me the opportunity to come to the tournament while she stays at home full of patience. If she is watching me right now, I just want to say that I will be home with her very soon."

This news is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Casper Ruud saca el ‘serve-bot’ que lleva dentro