There will be at least one surprise semi-finalist at the Masters 1000 in Toronto, as Mackenzie McDonald, 59th in the world and scorer of Milos Raonic (6-3, 6-3), will face Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, 37th, in the quarterfinals. final. The Spaniard, author of 58 winning strokes, emerged victorious (7-6 (4), 4-6, 7-6 (4)) on Thursday from an eighth of 3:05 against Casper Ruud, 5th in the world, who disappoints a again.
Davidovich Fokina (24), an early scorer for Alexander Zverev on Wednesday, dominated the first part of the match, winning the first tie-break – he saved all 4 break points in the set. If the interruption of a big hour due to the rain notably allowed him to catch up in the second, the Spaniard had a huge slump at 4-4 in the second: he only won at from that moment only one point of the 12 points disputed, conceding the set and the break at the start of the third.
Ruud, fifth member of the top 10 eliminated
But when serving for the match, Ruud lost his serve and his forehand, his two weapons, and was passive, which allowed the 37th in the world to take advantage of it to come back to 5-5. The final tie-break saw the 24-year-old Norwegian sink completely, chaining the faults, especially at the start.
The Spaniard, who had already beaten Ruud at Roland-Garros in 2021, offers his fifth victory against a top 10 and his first on hard court. Here he is in the quarter-finals of the Masters 1000 for the fourth time in his career. And against McDonald’s, he has something to play for.
Casper Ruud, who has experienced difficult results (one final) since his final at Roland-Garros, is the fifth player in the top 10 to be eliminated in Toronto, after Stefanos Tsitsipas (4th), Holger Rune (6th), Andrey Rublev (7th ) and Frances Tiafoe (10th).
