Knee hampers Casper Ruud in French Open loss; Alcaraz moves on - ESPN

Clearly hampered by a bad left knee, two-time French Open finalist Casper Ruud dropped 13 of the last 14 games, lost 2-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-0 to Nuno Borges in the second round at Roland Garros on Wednesday and then revealed he had been playing in pain off-and-on throughout the clay-court season.

The seventh-seeded Ruud reached at least the semifinals each of the past three years in Paris — finishing as the runner-up to Rafael Nadal in 2022 and Novak Djokovic in 2023 — and this is his earliest exit at the tournament since bowing out in the second round in his debut in 2018.

Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz overcame a one-set blip to defeat Fabian Marozsan 6-1, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.

For the past several weeks, Ruud has been taking pain-killing and anti-inflammatory pills, and he did so again Wednesday. But Ruud said the knee began bothering him in the first set against Borges, who is ranked 41st and became the first Portuguese man to get to the French Open's third round. Borges will face Alexei Popyrin in the third round after the Australian player eased past Alejandro Tabilo in straight sets.

Ruud said the worst shot for his knee is an open-stance backhand, in which he slides on his left foot, so he has been avoiding it in practice.

«Certain movements out there are kind of what makes it painful. Certain shots are painful to do,» said Ruud, who also reached the final at the 2023 US Open. «When you're playing matches, you can't really control it in the same way [as in practice]. You do everything you can to get to every ball. Sometimes you kind of forget that this is a shot I shouldn't go for.»

Ruud was visited by a trainer and took some pills during Wednesday's match, but nothing seemed to help.

«It's a Slam. I love this tournament,»