Casper Ruud to return to Top 10 after reaching Acapulco quarterfinals, sets Ben Shelton clash

Casper Ruud has continued his strong start to 2024, improving to 11-2 on the season with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over Dusan Lajovic to reach the quarterfinals of the ATP 500 event in Acapulco.

And with that win, Ruud has secured a return to the Top 10.

Currently ranked No. 11, Ruud is now up to No. 9 on the ATP’s official live rankings. While at first glance two players can pass his points total, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alex de Minaur, the Greek and the Australian will actually play each other in the quarterfinals on Friday, meaning only one of them can actually still add points from here, meaning Ruud will be ranked no lower than No. 10 on Monday.

He'll end up somewhere in the No. 8-10 range depending on how both Acapulco and Dubai play out over the next few days.

Ruud had spent 113 career weeks in the Top 10, all consecutively between September 13th, 2021 and November 12th, 2023, before dipping out of the elite on November 13th last year after his points from reaching the final of the ATP Finals the year before fell off.

But he’s been lurking just outside at No. 11 or No. 12 in the three-and-a-half months since, and with this result he’ll bounce back inside.

Up next for current No. 11 Ruud will be current No. 17 Ben Shelton, who battled his way into the last eight in Acapulco earlier in the night session with a 7-6 (1), 3-6, 6-3 victory over Italy's Matteo Arnaldi.

Ruud and Shelton have played each other twice before—Shelton won their first meeting in Cincinnati in 2022, 6-3, 6-3, then Ruud got his revenge on clay in Barcelona last year, 6-2, 7-6 (1).

Shelton’s win over a No. 5-ranked Ruud in Cincinnati two summers ago was a significant one, too—not only was it his first career win over a Top 5 player, but it made him the youngest American man to beat a Top 5 player since Andy Roddick beat Gustavo Kuerten in Montreal in 2001, which was before Shelton was even born.

The two will meet for a third time in the last quarterfinal match on Friday’s schedule in Acapulco, not before 9pm local time.