Norway’s Casper Ruud thumped Great Britain’s Cameron Norrie 6-0, 6-2 to win the San Diego Open.

It was 22-year-old Ruud’s first ATP Tour title on hard courts, with his five previous tour wins all coming on his beloved clay.

It was Ruud’s fifth title of the 2021 season, making him the tour leader in titles won.

Earlier in the year, Ruud won ATP 250-level events at Kitzbuhel, Gstaad, Bastad and Geneva (all on outdoor clay). In 2020, he won his maiden ATP title on the clay courts of Buenos Aires.

2021 ATP Tour title leaders:

1) Casper Ruud – 5
T2) Novak Djokovic – 4
T2) Daniil Medvedev – 4
T2) Alexander Zverev – 4
T5) Hubert Hurkacz – 3
T5) Jannik Sinner – 3

“It’s a fun thing to say it, but obviously Daniil and Novak have bigger titles, so I wouldn’t mind switching up with them if I had an opportunity to switch five 250s to three Slams and a 250 Novak has. It’s a bit higher level, but that’s fine. I think that’s more impressive obviously than five 250s, but I will take it,” Ruud said, as quoted by the ATP Tour. “It would be fun to end the year with the most titles, I cannot lie about that.”

The victory will see Ruud move into eighth place in the Race to Turin as he tries to qualify for the ATP Finals to be held in the Italian city from November 14-21.

Picture: Casper Ruud – ATP Tour/Twitter

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