Casper Ruud moves into US Open final and leaves Nadal with no chance of being world number one

Casper Ruud reaches a Grand Slam final again. He does so at the US Open, just months after winning the title at Roland Garros. Beat Karen Khachanov by 7-6(5), 6-2, 5-7 and 6-2 so now he has to wait to meet his rival, who will determine if he manages to become world number one or if he has to win the trophy to take the top of the ATP rankings.

It was a strange match, where he didn’t show his best version, but he couldn’t be defeated by his rival either. The Norwegian limited himself to playing his game and through long and worked points he managed to take a Khachanov who couldn’t even be the shadow of the warrior who defeated Kyrgios in the quarter-finals .

The first set, for example, was even close to reaching a tie-break, but never had a paroxysm of emotions. Both arrived nervous, perhaps overwhelmed by the instance, and the pauses were shared at the start. There were no extraordinary points or combat of inherently antagonistic forces. While the Russian is after the short points, with a fearsome serve and a forehand that does a lot of damage when caught above the hip, the Norwegian is a long point specialist. It changes speed, moves its rivals, and is able to respond to bullets almost indefinitely.

But none of these descriptions were fully realized in the first series. The highlight was actually the set point, where they played a point of 55 paleteos which became the rally the longest of the tournament.

The blow of losing the first round unsettled Khachanov, who couldn’t start the game the right way and immediately gave up a lot of ground. Ruud, for his part, took advantage of his rival’s dip and managed to dominate the stocks with no problem. . It was a comfortable set, which differed from the third, where the forces stabilized and the Russian was even able to take the heat.

It was a reward for the work of those weeks, because on the pitch the feeling was always that Ruud was a step up. In fact, after this setback of not taking the third set, the Scandinavian’s superiority clearly reappeared. A final 6-2 in the fourth set installed him in the US Open final and with the great chance of being the next world number one.

Now he will wait for the duel between Carlos Alcaraz and Frances Tiafoe to meet his rival and incidentally if he will reach the final as world number one. If the Spaniard loses in the semi-finals, will become the first Scandinavian to reach the top of the rankings since Stefan Edberg did so in 1986 .