Ruud rocked by British wildcard, crashes out at Queen's

Casper Ruud rocked by British wildcard, crashes out at Queen’s

Casper Ruud has been dumped out of Queen’s while making his tournament debut, as the top seed no less, going out to the ATP world number 180.

The Norwegian took on Ryan Peniston of Great Britain, losing 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-2) in front of a raucous crowd that was fully backing the Brit.

Peniston, 26, made it into the cinch Championships main draw by virtue of a wildcard.

Moreover, he had never previously played an ATP tour level match, but can now boast a career tour record of 1-0.

He said after the victory: “It feels like a dream.

“I didn’t get much sleep last night.

“You have to step on the court thinking you have a chance to win.

“And I think I did that and that was all I could do.”

By defeating world number five Ruud, Peniston has the status of defeating a Slam finalist and a top 10 pro all at once.

This is a huge upset on the lawns of the Queen’s Club, though Ruud does not have much experience on the grass.

Before this season, he had only played five tour level matches on grass, at Wimbledon in 2021 and 2019 and Mallorca 2021.

In addition, 23-year-old did require attention from the physio after losing the opening set.

That was after suffering a slip from behind the centre court baseline.

Peniston is part of a top half of the draw that is wide open at the moment.

He will face either Francisco Cerundolo or Pedro Martinez next, two men who have zero and two career tour level wins on grass respectively.