It was the Croatian who advanced to the top four first after defeating Andrey Rublev in the fifth-set super tie-break. During the night shift, Casper defeated Holger Rune to become the first Norwegian to reach that milestone in any of the Open Era Grand Slams.
Roland Garros already knows its four semi-finalists. In a day marked by the last two duels in the quarter-finals of the men’s draw, Marin Cilic (23rd) and Casper Ruud (8th) secured their place in the match before the grand final . The two will be in this instance for the first time and will square off on Friday at a time to be confirmed.
The first to achieve this is the former world number 3 and winner of the US Open in 2014, who had to fight for 4 hours and 10 minutes to overtake the Russian, Andrey Rublev (7th). The mark remained 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6 and 7-6(2) in favor of the Croatian who returns to the semi-finals of a Grand Slam after four years, having reached the final of the Australian Open in 2018.
Ruud for his part settled into the top four by winning by 6-1, 4-6, 7-6(2) and 6-3 against young Holger Rune who was the big surprise of the Paris tournament, bursting into the draw at just 19 and turning 40 in the world.
Thus the Norwegian becomes the first player from his country to reach a Grand Slam semi-final in the entire Open era expanding his legend in the Scandinavian nation.
Now, both must face each other this Friday in what will be the third confrontation in their history. In the previous two, it was Ruud who emerged victorious . First at the Rome Masters 1000 in 2020 then at the Canadian Masters 1000 last year.
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Source: Latercera
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
