Ruud reaches French Open semi-finals after a strong resistance by Rune

As Mats Wilander mentioned during the on-court interview, this was the most important match of their careers for both Norwegian Casper Ruud, the No 8 seed, and Danish teenager Holger Rune.

Ruud prevailed 6-1, 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-3 to move into the semi-finals of the French Open at Stade Roland-Garros in Paris. The final night-session match of the 2022 tournament lasted three hours and 15 minutes.

Ruud, ranked No 8, will face Croat Marin Cilic, the No 20 seed, in the semis.

“These are the matches you dream about playing and hopefully of course even the final, if it’s possible,” Ruud said in an on-court interview. “I have to be really focussed and bring my ‘A’ game in the semi-final because Marin has played great all week and it’s going to be another tough match.”

Thus ended a brilliant run for Rune, aged 19, who just played his first Roland-Garros and beat two seeds and one local hero on the way to the quarters. Currently ranked 40th, Rune will be very close to the Top 25 — his main goal for the season — next week. He defeated Canadian Denis Shapovalov, the No 14 seed (6-3, 6-1, 7-6(4)), Swiss Henri Laaksonen (6-2, 6-3, 6-3), Frenchman Hugo Gaston (6-3, 6-3, 6-3) and Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, the No 4 seed (7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4) earlier in the tournament.

Ahead of his Wednesday’s victory, Ruud beat French wild card Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (6-7(6), 7-6(4), 6-2, 7-6(0)), Finn Emil Ruusuvuori (6-3, 6-4, 6-2), Italian Lorenzo Sonego, the No 32 seed (6-2, 6-7(3), 1-6, 6-4, 6-3) and Pole Hubert Hurkacz, the No 12 seed (6-2, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3).

Roland-Garros, other last eight results (Stade Roland-Garros, clay, EUR 43.600.000, most recent results first):

• Marin Čilić beat Andrey Rublev (7): 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 [2]
• Rafael Nadal (5) beat Novak Djokovic (1): 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 [4]
• Alexander Zverev (3) beat Carlos Alcaraz (6): 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 [7]

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