Casper Ruud continues to thrive in his maiden trip deep into the second week of a Grand Slam. The 23-year-old advanced to his first major quarter-final earlier this fortnight — becoming the first Norwegian man to reach that stage — and is now through to the final after a 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 victory against Marin Cilic in Friday's semi-finals.
The eighth seed will face Rafael Nadal for the first time in Sunday's final as he bids to deny the Spaniard a record-extending 14th Roland Garros title and 22nd Grand Slam singles title.
After Cilic powered through the opening set behind two late breaks, Ruud began a methodical comeback that picked up steam as the match progressed. The Croatian dominated the early rallies, winning and losing points on his own terms, before Ruud gained traction behind his high-rpm ground strokes.
After spending much of the opening set on defense, the Norwegian began to pull his opponent around by finding the corners with heavy spin. The story of the match can be tracked by the winners-to-unforced errors counts for both men. After Ruud struck just three winners (and five errors) in the opening set, he hit 16, 12, and 10 in the final three, outpacing his error count by a healthy margin in each. Cilic produced a plus-four ratio in the opening two sets but a minus-nine mark in the last two.
Following the victory, Ruud rises above Carlos Alcaraz to No. 6 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, projecting for career-high in Monday's Pepperstone ATP Rankings.
Cilic was bidding for his fourth major final and had the opportunity to become fifth active man to reach the final of all four Slams. The World No. 23 would have been the lowest-ranked Roland Garros semi-finalist since No 25 Robin Soderling in 2009.
More to come...
from Tennis - ATP World Tour https://ift.tt/JrABLjY
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