However, the Norwegian managed to hold strong for a comfortable fifth set over a player that had previously beaten him in their only meeting on hard courts.

This continues a strong start to the season for the world number six, with Ruud winning all of his singles matches at the United Cup, despite Norway exiting at the round-robin stage.

Casper Ruud hopes to surpass Christian Ruud’s best Australian Open result

Casper Ruud has grown up in a tennis family, and is actually coached by his father Christian Ruud, who is a former top 40 ranked singles player.

When speaking in his on-court interview after winning his first match on the Rod Laver Arena, Casper Ruud was asked about his father’s record at the Australian Open.

Both players have a best result in Melbourne of reaching the fourth round, with Casper Ruud hoping to improve that in 2025.

“For sure, I have a better record in most other tournaments so this is the kind of last one standing for him,” joked Ruud. “I hope I can beat it one day, but I’m happy if he also has one record at least in the family.

“But, you know he’s inspired me a lot and I think without him it would be very difficult to get where I am today, so I am owe him a lot and have to thank him a lot, because he always helped me along the way yeah I am really happy with the work we have done.”

Comparing Casper Ruud’s achievements to Christian Ruud

Casper Ruud has made history for Norwegian tennis in recent years, having been ranked as high as world number two.

While Christian Ruud did not win a singles title, Casper Ruud has gone onto reach three major finals and win 12 tournaments on the ATP Tour.

Nearly all of these titles have come on clay courts, highlighted by Ruud’s biggest victory to date in Barcelona last year.

Casper Ruud will now move onto the second round of the Australian Open, where he awaits the winner of Jakub Mensik and Nikoloz Basilashvili.

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