“I feel good, I feel fit again, but when you’re two weeks in bed, you start losing muscle tissue, so it took a bit of time and training over a few weeks to get back to feeling like I was 100%,” he said in New York. “I tried my best for Wimbledon, but it didn’t happen until maybe just a few weeks later.”
Since reaching the second week at the US Open, Ruud has won just one match last week in Stockholm, and was up against it early in Bautista Agut, a player he trailed 1-2 in their head-to-head.
Bautista Agut showed few signs of fatigue as he raced through the opening set, and scored the crucial break early in the decider before booking his place in the second round, where Canadian Denis Shapovalov awaits. The former Wimbledon semifinalist dispatched Chinese youngster Shang Juncheng in straight sets as a wild card on Tuesday.
Should he maintain his perfect head-to-head against Bautista Agut (leads 2-0), he could set up an all-Canadian quarterfinal against No. 8 seed Félix Auger-Aliassime, who faces Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard on Thursday.
