PARIS – Eighth seed Casper Ruud of Norway rallied from a set down to beat Croatia’s Marin Cilic 3-6 6-4 6-2 6-2 to set up a French Open title clash against 13-time champion Rafael Nadal.
Norway’s Ruud broke the 2014 US Open champion’s service five times to seal the second men’s semi-final on Court Philippe Chatrier after Nadal progressed to the final when his opponent Alexander Zverev retired with an ankle injury mid-match.
Ruud has become the first Norwegian man to reach a Grand Slam singles final.
The eighth-seeded Ruud is 23 and never had been past the fourth round at any major tournament until now.
His father, Christian, was a professional tennis player from 1991 to 2001.
Ruud has shown that he can play well on clay, with tour highs of seven titles and 66 match wins on the surface since the start of 2020.
He now faces the toughest test there ever has been on clay, going up against 13-time French Open champion Nadal in the final on Sunday. Ruud has trained at Nadal’s tennis academy in Spain and refers to the 36-year-old Spaniard as his idol.
Ruud returned Cilic’s big serve well enough to break him five times and even hit more aces, 16-10. Cilic had 33 aces in the quarterfinals Wednesday.
The semi-final was interrupted for more than 10 minutes in the third set by a climate activist who attached herself to the net and knelt on the court.
Nadal advanced to the French Open final after Alexander Zverev fell during a point, injured his right ankle and stopped playing.
A little more than 3 hours into the match, Zverev was running to his right to chase a ball when he tumbled. His black outfit was covered in rust-colored clay and he immediately grabbed his lower right leg, screaming in pain.
A trainer came out to attend to him, and Nadal walked around the net to check on Zverev, too. Zverev was taken off the court in a wheelchair.
Several minutes later, he came back out using crutches and said he needed to retire from the match.
Nadal won the first set 7-6 (8). The second set was also headed to a tiebreaker when Zverev went down.
Discussion about this post