Casper Ruud found himself in a familiar position, opening Laver Cup action for a fourth time in five appearances. Armed with a new racquet, the former world No. 2 got Team Europe off to a winning start with a 6-4, 7-6 (4) win over Team World’s Reilly Opelka.
Ruud opened up about the nigh-imperceptible switch on court after improving to 5-0 against Opelka, having navigated a close second set to ultimately ease through the tiebreaker at the Chase Arena in San Francisco.
“Not the biggest change,” Ruud confirmed. “Just a few adjustments: frame size, head sizes, balances, weight. You can do a lot of tweaks and things here and there. So, it’s still the same frame, just a bit of a smaller head size and it was working well today. Maybe I need to keep it going.”
The 26-year-old began experimenting with his equipment after a second-round exit from the US Open, moving from the Yonex EZONE’s 100 square-inch headsize down to the 98 square-inch model.
